
Glass 
Book 



FRESENTKD BY 



TRUTH AND LIFE 



TRUTH AND LIFE 



BY 
ALBERT C. GRIER 

AND 

AGNES M. LAWSON 




NEW YORK 

E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY 

eSl FIFTH AVENUE 



.G-7 



COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY 

AGNES M. LAWSON 

First Printing November, 1921 

Second Printing April, 1922 



'^t< 






Press of 

jr. J. Little & Ives Company 

New York. U. S. A. 



INTRODUCTION 
Albert C. Grier 

It is agreed by all thinkers that we are entering 
upon a new period of human history. We are ap- 
proaching it not without observation; but it is not 
the things observed that are the real elements of the 
transformation. The statesmen, the scholars, the 
reformers, having their eyes on the changes in ma- 
terial or purely intellectual things of life, believe that 
in the forms of government or economic adjustment 
or educational qualities they see the goal of these 
momentous changes. 

The crux of the revolution, however, lies far 
deeper and in another realm. The surface changes 
are in themselves insignificant, having their values 
only as indications of more pregnant events. These 
forces, these lines of direction, are never seen by 
any but the idealists. Only the school of the 
prophets can study or be acutely aware of these 
hidden lines. 

Never before in human history have there been 
so many souls with prophetic vision. Seership of a 
high order is a heritage of this hour. Souls of this 
type discern what it is that is taking place in the 
"chambers of imagery" of mankind. They stand in 
awe before the rebirth of a race. 



vi INTRODUCTION 

If to stand and watch a race being born into a 
world life would have been great beyond thinking, 
how transcendently greater is it to be witness of the 
second birth of man — the birth into his divine heri- 
tage of being, the conscious co-operator with God 
in his own destiny? It is this change that we are 
witnessing — ^yes, forwarding. 

Though this transformation is indeed the "su- 
preme event in nature," still it is a perilous period 
in human history. As in the life of man the age 
of puberty is accompanied with perils, so in this 
period of race-maturing there are dangers and pit- 
falls that would almost call a Saviour from heaven. 
If ever guidance were needed, it is needed now. All 
the scholarship, all the revelation, all the sanctifica- 
tion, all the consecration that can be commanded by 
those who see must be called into service. This is 
a crucial period in human history. While the Truth 
must inevitably triumph, a false step may delay its 
reign of peace for another thousand years. 

Any man who claims the right to lead in so 
momentous and so crucial a time, does so at the 
peril of being thought an egotist. There was in 
Jesus something unnamable — so fine is its essence, 
i — that caused Him simply to ignore the miatter of 
egotism, though the form of His words convicted 
Him of the charge. In somewhat, I trust, of His 
Spirit, I dare give forth the revelation the Father 
has made to me for the guidance of man as he steps 
into the new fields of divine adventure. 

A famous English scientist has recently said that 
we may look any day for a discovery, from some 
obscure laboratory, by an unknpwn scientist, that 



INTRODUCTION vii 

will bisect human history. This discovery has been 
made, and its natural and contagious extension is 
the subtle and underlying cause of that cracking in 
the surface of life which men, not yet wise in the 
deeper things, are trying to interpret. 

That which will bisect one life has in it the po- 
tency to bisect human history. Some years ago, 
this old, new discovery was made by me for myself. 
It bisected my whole existence. Mine had been a 
ruined life, although I had education, ancestry and 
opportunity. And on every side I greet others who 
have made the same transforming discovery. 

The Test of a Soul, — It is obvious that only that 
which will bisect an individual's history can bisect 
humanity's history. Humanity is the aggregate of 
its members; no new factor is added to it. The 
history of the race is but the history of the individ- 
ual's experience written large. If, then, we can 
find that which will transform the individual, and 
that which alone will do it, we have found the secret 
of the New Heaven and the New Earth. Every 
soul that has come into a living knowledge of the 
Truth will bear glad testimony that the knowledge 
has transformed his life. It is the common experi- 
ence of such that they reckon their age from the day 
when the light of Truth broke into their souls. 

The Nature of the Universe, — Abstract as this 
question is, there is no more vital one which pre- 
sents itself to the mind of man. This is the case 
because man must erect every plan of his life upon 
his understanding of the nature of the universe in 
which he lives. It is obvious, then, that any struc- 
ture which he may build will be untenable if it 13 



viii INTRODUCTION 

erected upon a false foundation. And when it is 
found that all the structures which humanity has 
built have proved untenable under test conditions, 
it is conclusive that it is because they are resting 
upon false foundations. When, added to this proof, 
we have the experience that by a change from a 
certain basis to another our structures become stable 
and harmonious, we are driven to the conclusion 
that the old foundation was wrong and the new 
one is right. 

In practically all of the past, man has taken a 
material basis for his foundation of thought in the 
realms of economics, of government, of sociology, 
of healing, of education, and of religion. Upon this, 
he has built all of his individual and social struc- 
tures. Today every one of them is falling upon his 
head. And though he may change the form of any 
of these structures, it will meet with a similar fate if 
he does not change the foundation upon which it is 
built. The material concept of life is doomed. It 
is passing to its destruction. It has been weighed in 
the balance and found wanting. 

The Basis of Spirit. — There is only one other pos- 
sible foundation for the superstructures of thought 
and activity. It is the basis of Spirit. To this man 
is being driven, not alone by the failure of the old, 
but by the success of the new. Added to this is the 
compelling fact that the spiritual nature of the uni- 
verse is the truth revealed to the soul of man. 

We are living in an age in which a multitude of 
people are emerging from the mist of matter and 
are being made divinely aware of the true nature of 
Being — the nature of Man, of the universe, and of 



INTRODUCTION ix 

the great Source. There is practically a consensus 
of the experiences of these illumined souls. They 
have all been made to realize the spiritual nature 
of the universe, and in this revelation they have 
discovered the perfect unity of God, man, and the 
universe — ^that they are all of the same essence. 
This essence we call spirit. We see that whatever 
is the nature of God, that must be the nature of 
all His manifestations. 

In the light of this experience, man looks in upon 
himself with a new vision. He understands, now, 
the potencies of Jesus Christ. He sees the rationale 
of the Master's healings and the sovereignty he 
manifested over the supposed laws of nature; and 
there opens before him a vista of the triumphs of 
humanity in this newly discovered realm of the 
soul. Looking out, he sees a new world. No longer 
is it a world of unresponsive solid matter, but a 
universe partaking of the nature of God. 

The Truth sees the whole Cosmic purpose as the 
process through which the sense-conscious mind of 
man is transformed to the Spirit-conscious mind of 
Christ. So, every experience has for its purpose 
this transformation. Experiences occur that we 
may learn to distinguish between our false seeing 
and the true, that we may pass from "sense to 
soul,'' and properly interpret the Divine Purpose, 
Plan, and Nature. It is not the Truth that the cos- 
mos is a nightmare into which man fell and from 
which his goal now is to extricate himself. 

The Purpose of the Universe. — ^The Divine Mind 
desired a mighty thing, the production of which is 
the purpose of Cosmic existence. And that mighty 



X INTRODUCTION 

thing is a self -induced love — a response to the great 
love of God. This was so valuable in the mind of 
God that He dared to let man pass through all the 
experiences of life in order that it might be brought 
about, and it is being brought about. Here and 
there, through the ages, there have arisen souls that 
have truly responded to the Love which laid down 
Its life for Man. 

So, Truth affirms the reality of the universe in all 
of its manifestations. Truth bends all its powers 
to the end that God proposed in the beginning, that 
the soul of man shall see the universe as it is in 
Him. The Truth accepts all experiences as actual 
and as having for their purpose the progression of 
the soul of man to that place where it knows God, 
the Source of Being. 

How Is Man Related to This Universe? — No sur- 
vey of the universe is complete or comprehensible 
which does not include man. He is part of the uni- 
verse and its every equality is in him. Its nature is 
his nature, and as we have discovered that the uni- 
verse is spirit, we are compelled to a spiritual in- 
terpretation of man. This means more than the 
fact that he has a spirit ; it means that he is spirit — 
soul, mind and body. 

So I behold a spirit being dwelling in a world of 
Spirit. This is the final of all analyses and the basis 
of all true hfe philosophy. Then arises the might- 
iest of questions, how is man related to this uni- 
verse in which he is called to function — related not 
merely in nature or in time or in space, but how is 
he related effectively? How is an engineer related 
to his engine? How does he function in it? This 



INTRODUCTION xi 

IS the question which man must answer if he is to 
use successfully this mighty universe and properly 
co-operate with it in its purpose. 

The Transfer of the Universe mto Conscious- 
ness. — The Truth vision takes man out of the status 
of a subject to the universe and places him in the 
realm of mastery. In this vision, man is never the 
creature of circumstances but is forever the creator 
and controller of circumstances. No matter how 
ignorant of this fact he may be, he still makes and 
shapes circumstances. It is, however, only when 
he knows his power and consciously exercises it 
that he becomes sovereign. In the realm of Spirit 
Man, God's ideal of Himself, is in supreme do- 
minion of his entire circumstances; he is in har- 
monious relationship with every other idea of God, 
for one Mind animates all and that is Love. 

Three Possible Attitudes, — There are only three 
possible attitudes of mind toward man's relationship 
to the universe: 

First, he is the creature of circumstances and his 
character and circumstances are shaped by his en- 
vironing universe. 

Second, he is absolutely independent of any uni- 
verse and the universe in which he seems to func- 
tion is a delusion. 

Third, he is master through Mind of his environ- 
ment and by his thought he shapes every form, fact 
and circumstance of his experience. 

The author sees and accepts the last of these three 
concepts. He sees that God is all there is and that 
He is substance and intelligence. God has a body 
through which He functions. That body is the uni- 



xii INTRODUCTION 

verse, and it is through the universe that He ex- 
presses Himself. He thinks or feels (for the two 
are one with Him), and His thought forms a mold 
into which His substance pours, and behold the 
thought exists in substance! If this is the method 
of God functioning it must be the method of beings 
created in His image. His sons. 

Man's Method of Functioning, — "My Father 
worketh hitherto, and I work." *'As I hear I judge." 
Man must eternally work as his Father works, and 
so we have the true method of man's operation. 
One individual differs from another only because 
he thinks differently. 

So every thought is a mold and shapes something 
out of the substance of God. If the thought is a 
true thought, a God thought, the thing that it shapes 
spells health, well-being or happiness in some form. 
If it is a thought which does not conform to the 
Divine Idea, it will shape a disease, a want or a 
sorrow. When this is perceived all education will 
be directed to one purpose, the translation of the 
eternal Reality. 

In this vision lies the foundation principle of 
Truth. There is a consensus of opinion today as to 
the healing power of thought or prayer; of the 
phenomenon there are many explanations. Some 
who do not accept our beliefs may do as great heal- 
ing as we, for faith is power, and they feel that 
they prove the truth of their interpretations by their 
demonstrations. But they prove rather a principle 
which underlies them all. It is our purpose to find 
that underlying principle, and we have it in this 
tremendous discovery. We lay no claim to being 



INTRODUCTION xiu 

the first discoverers of the principle. We believe 
that Jesus gave it to the world in word and act ; in 
this age it has been stated in our vernacular by 
Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is outlined by him in 
many places but given in boldness in his Essay on 
'Trospects" and likewise in "The Transcendental- 
ist." I made it mine through the absolute approval 
of my soul of the verdicts given by the mightiest of 
thinkers. Jesus said to Peter, ''Upon this rock I 
build my church/' and I say to you, "Upon this rock 
I build my church." 

The Eternal Promise. — One promise runs like a 
golden thread through the Bible ; it is the statement 
that some day things shall be on earth as they are in 
heaven. To the illumined soul, this means that what 
is seen to be in the Great Reality shall some day 
manifest in the experience of man. The Kingdom 
of Heaven has been discovered to be "at hand'' ; but 
it has never been "among us." The object of man's 
life on earth is to attain this goal. That it shall be 
accomplished is not only the promise of the Scrip- 
tures, but it is the anticipation of every true poet and 
seer in every land and in every time. But human 
history would seem to belie these fond dreams of 
our best minds. Not only is the kingdom of earth 
not the Kingdom of Heaven, but as the years pass 
it does not seem to approximate it. There has been 
progress, but with all the refinements it has brought 
it has yet failed to bring in the Kingdom. In these 
days close to the experience of the Great War, the 
cruelest in history, it is not necessary to present 
statistics or facts in regard to the alarming con- 
dition of mankind. Every means that promised the 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

coming of peace on earth and good will among men 
has failed. Inventions, discoveries, printing, rapid 
transit, world interests, education, reforms, charities, 
philanthropies, social and industrial democracy — not 
one of these has availed. And when we add that 
religion in any of its commonly known forms has 
failed as utterly as any of these lesser means, we 
are constrained to examine with suspicion anything 
which claims the power to bring the Kingdom of 
Heaven to earth. 

Whatever it is that can transform the kingdom of 
earth to the Kingdom of Heaven must differ radi- 
cally from all the ways that the past has known. 
To the unillumined soul there seems to be no such 
way. But to find such a way is just what illumina- 
tion means — the capacity to discern that eternal 
thing, the apprehension of which contains the po- 
tency of all promises. Every problem contains its 
own solution. Life is a problem, but the answer lies 
within its heart, and that which Emerson calls '*the 
highest event in nature" is the revelation to the soul 
of itself and also of its world. This is the key of 
Being, the apperception of which brings the King- 
dom of Heaven at once into expression in the life. 
It is the rationale of that dynamic edict of Jesus, 
"Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make 
you free." The Kingdom of Heaven, now in ob- 
scuration, awaits man's discovery of the Truth for 
its manifestation in him and for him. So impossible 
has it seemed to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to 
earth by anything that man could do, that the world 
has been constrained to believe that only through the 



INTRODUCTION xv 

personal coming of Jesus Christ can the millennium 
be established. So that, for this advent, men have 
waited through the ages — and they have waited in 
vain. 

The Struggle of the Race Against Evils. — Man- 
kind has not submitted quietly to the direful evils 
of life. The world has been engaged in Titanic war- 
fare against every form of evil, but practically to no 
avail. There is a deep and subtle reason for this 
calamitous failure; but the cause is obvious to him 
who knows the Truth. Man has been unsuccessful 
in his warfare because in his ignorance of the real 
cause of evil he has fought a seeming cause, which 
was not a cause at all, but only an effect. Immedi- 
ately man knows the reason for his unhappiness, he 
has practically overcome it. 

The True Cause of Distress, — If it be true, as 
Jesus said, that a knowledge of the Truth would 
make us free, it follows that ignorance of the Truth 
is the cause of our lack of liberty. This is revela- 
tion. We are compelled to see the truth that man is 
always free, or otherwise the knowledge of the 
Truth would not make him free. 

It is, then, the startling and revolutionary dis- 
covery of the eternal freedom of man that is the 
hope and the compulsion of the New Heaven and 
the New Earth. So long as man believes himself to 
be subject to material law, so long is he in bondage. 
So long as he believes himself to be the victim of 
disease, so long will sickness prevail on earth. So 
long as he believes that he is born to poverty — that 
religion and poverty are twins — so long will lack 



XVI INTRODUCTION 

have dominion over him. So long as he believes 
that he is liable to accidents and calamities, so long 
will he live in fear. 

There Is a Way Out. — Man has lived in the with- 
out, in the world of appearances. He has believed 
that experience was his only teacher, and therefore 
he has constantly reproduced his errors. He has 
seen diseases and he has reflected and multiplied 
them. He has seen accidents, and in his very at- 
tempts to protect himself against them he has im- 
pressed them so vividly into his consciousness that 
he has constantly produced them. This has been the 
method and the history of the past. It will continue 
to be the method unless some new and radically dif- 
ferent mode of thinking shall become known to him 
and be practised by him. There is not enough 
science in the world to heal his diseases, which 
multiply with every advance of science. He is some- 
times deceived by the changes in the forms of dis- 
eases. He boasts of annihilating smallpox, but in 
doing even what he has done, he has multiplied 
cancer. He has vitiated the very life blood of the 
race by his vaccine. 

Circumstances the Mirror of the Mind. — It is a 
law of life that we reproduce what we fix our minds 
on and believe in. In the world of experience there 
are diseases and deformities, and man has believed 
that by the study of them he could destroy them. 
But the result has been, and it always will be, that 
this study, instead of destroying these enemies of 
man, increases them. The physicians may cure one 
particular person of a disease, but they will multiply 
the number who will have that disease. One malady 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

after another arises, becomes fashionable, and then 
dies out. And so at the end of one hundred years 
of intensive medical practice we are confronted with 
a diseased race. Among the Jewish people, for over 
a thousand years, the medical profession did not 
exist and the Psalmist naively declared : "There was 
not one feeble person in all their tribes." 

Men Knew no Better Way, — If tliere is no other 
way, the race is destined to extinction. A better 
way does exist, but it is not yet known to man as a 
race. It is the way which Jesus Christ revealed and 
took. Its secret lies in his words : *'The Kingdom 
of Heaven is at hand." This is the dynamic center 
of the Christ revelation so fraught with Titanic 
powers. It is not a thing that can be lightly esti- 
mated; it is an eternal truth, the ramifications of 
which extend into the very fabric of Being. Its 
comprehension is the first essential to the under- 
standing of any element of Truth or the working 
out of any of life's problems. This is what Jesus 
meant when he declared that we should know the 
Truth and the Truth should make us free. 

The Truth Is the Knowledge of the Kingdom as 
Present, — To know the Truth, then, is to know that 
the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Here is the 
secret of the ages, the genius of the revelation of 
Jesus Christ, the veiled cause of His marvelous 
powers. In it is revealed to us the perfect creation 
of God. Here is the Kingdom of Heaven which 
men postponed until after death or until the Messiah 
should come. By the declaration of Jesus that 
Kingdom is present now and here. It is, it was, 
and it evermore will be. For man to be unaware 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

of such a momentous thing is enough cause for 
every disease, every accident, every war, every 
famine, every lack of the race. This ignorance is 
the cause of all these human miseries, and being the 
cause, the cure is, manifestly, knowledge. The 
knowledge, then, of this transcendentally great 
Truth is the hope of the world. 

A Great Hope Is Man's, — Since he was ignorant 
that there is in the Great Reality this perfect Crea- 
tion, man took every other conceivable pattern for 
his world. Human opinions, imperfect models of 
sense consciousness, the broken molds of mortal 
experience, all these have been for him the copies in 
his book of life. Yet the knowledge of a perfect 
model is within his grasp. What revelation could be 
more fraught with promise? It is the only antithe- 
sis to the entire group of sense-conscious patterns 
which the past has so disastrously employed. If 
this fact were accepted upon the unsupported testi- 
mony of Jesus Christ, we might find it too frail to 
rest upon it the entire weight of human destiny; 
but the testimony comes from three other sources. 
First, we are bound to predicate a perfect universe 
from our fundamental of a perfect Creator ; second, 
the prophets of all ages have taught the same Real 
of Reality; and third, it is proclaimed by the inti- 
mations of the soul of man and the revealings of 
God-taught spirits. 

The Vital Element of this Revelation. — The whole 
is not realized by simply believing in the perfect 
Kingdom. The astonishing thing lies in the fact 
that a contemplation of this Kingdom reproduces 
its perfection in the life of man. The realization 



INTRODUCTION xix 

that the Real self is a perfect creation of God 
eventuates in the perfectness of this divine image 
in the body of man. The realization of the perfect- 
ness of the mind of God in the mind of man results 
in perfect wisdom in the thoughts of man. The 
realization of the perfectness of the. divine nature 
in us manifests itself in sinless lives. Man has 
alv^ays been obliged to follow a pattern, and he has 
followed the only one he knew, the pattern of his 
expression in the realm of appearances, or the ex- 
pression of others in that realm. 

A Divine and Perfect Pattern at Hand. — What 
greater news could hii given to man than that he had 
at hand a perfect p>^ tern — a pattern that contains 
no disease, that has *Q) place for pain, that is free 
from all poverty, sorrci^v, disappointment, and death ? 
We learn that this paJtern is not to be found afar 
off, but lies in the immediate Presence; it is not to 
be ours in a distant time, but in the eternal present. 
Aye, even more than that — "It is within us." In 
other words, the kingdom pattern is written in the 
very heart, mind and soul of each and every one of 
us. No man need ever lack wisdom, for infinite 
wisdom is within him. No man need lack strength, 
for '*Ye are gods, and every one of you is a son of 
the Most High." 

The Consequent Kingdom on Earth, — Since the 
present sick, sinful, poverty-stricken human struc- 
ture has been produced from humanity's study of 
the faulty pattern of experience and from external 
sense-conscious seeing, that structure will have a 
chance to grow healthily when man has discarded 
this pattern. As the new pattern is now being per- 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

clue. Immediately the soul takes this step, it finds 
itself on a wonderful highway. When we find that 
by seeing the perfect man, the tobacco habit disap- 
pears, that profane persons are made reverent, that 
drunkards are transformed into true manly men, 
that the victim of morphine is set free, then we are 
compelled to recognize that we are on that Way 
which Jesus said "I am." 

Now are we inspired to test this Way in matters 
of apparently different natures. When accidents 
threaten, we find that if the Perfect Kingdom is 
imaged, the calamity does not occur. Fire loses its 
power to hurt, water its power to drown, poisons 
their deadly potency. And we must test the Perfect 
Way in still another direction. The problem of our 
relationship to nature is small compared to the 
problems involved in our relationship to our fellow 
man. The jealousies among men, the frictions of 
daily life, the competitions in the world's courts and 
markets are sources of unending sorrow. And yet 
how wonderfully the Way works here! There is 
no kind of human inharmony that does not yield to 
the Vision. 

This Is the Kingdom Come. — Is not this the 
Kingdom of Heaven on earth ? Heaven means har- 
mony. It is when every element of discord has 
disappeared from life that heaven is realized. We 
have now in our hands the means of this divine 
consummation. We know the cause of life's inhar- 
monies; we know that by visioning the perfectness 
of the always present and really existent Kingdom 
of Heaven we bring it into manifestation. Man 
Jhas lived so long in the state of inharmony that he 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

thinks it is his natural condition. But it is not; it 
is absolutely unnatural. The stars in their courses 
cry out against it, and the whole divine economy is 
on the side of the coming Kingdom. Never before 
as now has there been a chance for this Kingdom to 
manifest itself. Jesus declared that it was at hand 
and within man ; but His revelation was not accepted 
by the world. His declaration was the first coming 
of Christ. The second coming is the arrival of the 
consciousness of the truth of His revelation. Just 
as rapidly, then, as this consciousness becomes the 
property of man, so will the true Kingdom come. 
And the gladdest news that has ever been brought 
to earth is the news of the rapid spread of this 
Christ Consciousness. Every Truth-Soul is a 
watchman on the tower of Zion, hailing the dawn of 
the light that lighteth every man that cometh into 
the world. This is the light of the Heaven that 
always was, but which mankind comprehended not. 
Now he is comprehending it and it is transforming 
the face of his earth. The kingdom of earth is be- 
coming the Kingdom of God. 

Looking upon the world, I see a race in pain — in 
the pain of sickness, poverty, war, discord, fear, 
and sin. Can I, even from a human standpoint, re- 
frain from offering to my suffering brothers the re- 
demption of which I have so gloriously partaken? 
As a lover of my kind, I offer this, my contribution, 
to the welfare of the race, for the love of whom the 
first revealer of this Truth gave His Hfe. 

Had there been granted me the leisure that 
scholarship demands, I would have given gladly my 
vision and my experience to mankind. But at th^ 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

very opening of my new existence, I was plunged 
into a life not only of intense activity but of such 
struggle with "principalities and powers," that it 
left neither time nor strength for that monumental 
work which was so appealingly called for. The 
Father solved the problem by sending to me Mrs. 
Lawson, whose soul was quickened with the purpose 
of giving a scientific and inspirational guide to 
thought and feeling — a guide which must present 
to the as yet unconvinced, but ripe minds of the race 
a religion which is rational and satisfying. And 
she, with the devotion of the true lover of her kind, 
has assumed the far heavier share of this conse- 
crated work. 

We have joined hands in this task, with a com- 
mon purpose — to bless. We present to the world 
these principles and visions which are fundamental, 
and which will, we believe, be the foundation of the 
interpretation of life that shall endure. We are 
deeply persuaded that this vision of life is the means, 
and the only means, of solving every problem and 
overcoming every sin of man. We offer it not as 
a new religion, but as a new statement, in the tongue 
of this age, of the discoveries of Jesus Christ, be- 
fore whom we stand as little children — yet as chil- 
dren who comprehend and so love the Elder Brother. 



CONTENTS 

Pies 
INTRODUCTION by Albert C. Greer v 

CHAPTEK 

I TRUTH 

The Eternal Quest — Accuracy of Truth — 
Prayer — Man's Security — The Invisible King- 
dom — Healing — Unchangeable Reality — The 
Rhythmic Universe — Omnipresence — Spiritual 
Receptivity 1-17 

II GOD 

The New Vision — How God Is Known — God, 
the Infinite Person — God, the Translator of 
Life — To Know God Is to Live — To Know 
God Is Man's Destiny — The Self-Surrender of 
God— The Pure in Heart See God .... 18-37 

III THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PRINCIPLE 
Knowing God and Knowing His Law — The 
Atonement — The Freedom of Jesus — Freedom 
Through Knowledge of Truth — The Inner 
Life — The Privilege of Right Seeing — Free- 
dom to Love — Attaining and Resting — The 
Father and the Son 38-58 

IV THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 

Kingdom Centric — The New Covenant — The 
Millennial Dawn — Discovering the Kingdom — 
Jesus and the Natural World — The Power 
of Spiritual Consciousness — Transformation 
Wrought by Understanding — Working in the 
Light — Right Identification 59~75 

V THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 
Science Discovers No Evil — Revelation Finds 
All Perfect-— Where Evil Is — Evil Is Sense 

XXV 



xxvi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Error — Eliminating False Beliefs — Sin and 
Evil One— The Results of Sin— -Hell Is False 
Thought Made Visible — The Delusion of Sin 
—The Unity of Man— The Eternal Contest- 
Pride, the Sin of Separation — Earth-Bound 
No More 7^-94 

VI PRAYER AND ANSWER 

Function of Prayer — Prayer Is Cause, the 
Answer Is Effect — The Science of Prayer — 
The Certainty of the Answer — Prayer and An- 
swer Are One — Transforming Power of 
Prayer — Prayer Is Laying Hold on Omnipo- 
tence — God's Demand Implies Our Power — 
The Lord's Prayer — Prayer Is to Enter Uni- 
versal Good — The Presence of the Presence . 95-115 

VII CONSCIOUSNESS 

God Consciousness — The Conscious, Sub-Con- 
scious, and Super-Conscious — The Recording 
Angel — The Body of Man — Direct Knowledge 
— The Crux of the Christian Revelation — The 
Spiritual Healing — The Sway of the Sub- 
Conscious — The Fruits of the Spirit . . . 1 16-136 

VIII HEALING, by Agnes M. Lawson 

The Kingdom Work — The Day of Cosmic 
Consciousness — A Glimpse to Lure Full Real- 
ization — Curing and Healing — Trust Healing 
—Spiritual Healing Is Being Born Again — 
Entering Into Power — Intelligence in the 
Kingdom — The Open Door — Renunciation — 
Centered in God — Seeing and Doing . . . 137-160 

IX FAITH 

Faith Is Laying Hold of Omnipotence — Faith 
— Beacon Lights of History — Faith Vital to 
Hope and Love — Demonstration Possible Only 
Through Faith — Faith Is God's Gift to Man — 
Faith Reveals Our Place in the Great Social 
Structure — The Story of a Man of Faith — 
The Sincere Desire — Miracles — Ladk of Faith 
Is Sin — Faith Is Making Connection — Faith Is 



CONTENTS xxvii 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Cosmic Thinking — Immortal Youth Through 

Faith 161-182 

X LOVE 

Love the Unifying Power — Love Is the Per- 
fect State — Love Is Our Potency — Love Is the 
Creator — Love Is the Universal Solvent — Love, 
the Key to All Situations — Love Is Universally 
Inclusive — Love, Its Own Reward — Love the 
Revealer of Each One's Good— Love the 
Healer — Love the One Necessity 183-204 

XI FUNDAMENTALS AND PRACTICAL 

WORK, by Agnes M. Lawson .... 205-231 

XII COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 

An Outline of the Evolution of Consciousness 
— The Process in One Life — A Bird's-Eye 
View-— The Truth of Evolution — Lights in the 
World — New Order of Beings — The New 
Source of Authority — The Way of Attain- 
ment — Characteristics of Cosmic Consciousness 
— Jesus the Perfect Example— The Trans- 
figuration 237-256 



TRUTH AND LIFE. 



CHAPTER I 
TRUTH. 

Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Trtrth, is come, He will 
guide you into all Truth. — John 16:13. 

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.—John 14:6. 

There is nothing hid that shall not be revealed. — Matt. 
10 :26. 

The Eternal Quest. — Since man first began tq 
think, he has been organizing expeditions for the dis- 
covery of that which will yield him satisfaction. 
The hunt for the Czolden Fleece, the search for the 
Holy Grail, the quest for the Fountain of Youth, 
the expected coming of the Messiah, the eager 
longing for the Millennium; all these are expres- 
sions of an unceasing urge within him to obtain that 
which will satisfy his physical and spiritual needs, 
and fulfil his desire to comprehend life in all its 
mysteries. This is the Spirit in man of which the 
Almighty is the inspiration ; and it can never rest save 
in the attainment and expression of "The Truth." 

Christianity gave a new impetus to this inde- 
fatigable spirit of investigation and discovery by the 
imperative assertion of its Founder: "Ye shall 
know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free." 
It is therefore not only possible for us to find that 



2 TRUTH AND LIFE 

for which we have always been seeking, but it is 
compulsory that we find it. "We are piqued to this 
end/' said Emerson. 

We speak glibly of the knowledge of Truth; but 
Truth is the ultimate, illimitable, infinite. In that 
sense, no man can say that he knows the Truth. 
Yet in another and very real sense we do know the 
Truth when we have the vision to perceive a prin- 
ciple or demonstrate a law. It is not necessary to 
know all truths to know The Truth. We are, how- 
ever, on the road to Truth when we have received 
the Spirit of Truth. 

We are not on the way to The Truth if we seek 
the aid of material drugs for health ; or employ ma- 
terial facts for solving spiritual problems; or when 
we feel fear and menace in any thing ; or believe that 
accident or chance plays any part in our lives. These 
beliefs hamper us, they lead us astray and defeat 
demonstration of Truth. We keep in the right Way 
only when fear of lack, fear of disease, fear of old 
age and death find no place in our mentality. To 
stand fast in Truth is to stand with Christ in the 
resurrection. Since there is no possible way of 
becoming free save by knowing The Truth, it is 
essential for us to have a clear and distinct idea of 
what Truth is, in order to have a working basis for 
accomplishment. 

Truth is the vision we perceive through soul in- 
sight, and its persistence is its most perfect assertion 
of itself. The ever-changing material conditions 
are but the passing beliefs in the race-thought about 
creation. Truth enables us to penetrate the mist of 
matter and find the idea. The truth of anything 



TRUTH 3 

is the idea of it, and it is spiritual discernment only 
which enables us to perceive ideas. The work con- 
fronting us is the correction of our material mis- 
conceptions by this perception. The discovery that 
"all is Infinite Mind and Its Infinite manifestation/' 
is the Truth now accepted not only by metaphysical 
seers but by scientific thinkers also. It enables us 
to determine clearly that the spiritual world is the 
God Idea of creation, and the ^'material" but the 
misconception of immaturity in regard to it. 

Accuracy of Truth. — The one truth about which 
we are all agreed is the truth of mathematics. No 
educated person would attempt to promote an argu- 
ment on this science. The acceptance of it is our 
test for intelligence and education. No one can 
hope to be proficient in any science, art or craft 
without a definite understanding of mathematical 
principles. In physics, chemistry, architecture, 
music and business mathematics is essential to any 
progress. 

Yet in and of itself mathematics has no existence. 
Its only basis is the Truth of the universe, the ac- 
curacy of the One Mind true and equal to itself 
everywhere. It is on this Truth that we base the 
relationship of Mind to Its ideas, and trace the rela- 
tionship of idea to idea. When this Truth is appre- 
hended in all its implications, religions will cease 
to be sectarian and local, for religion will then be 
accepted as the accurate perception, classification 
and demonstration of Truth established in the con- 
sciousness of man. Then will there be no more 
possibility for an argument about it than there is 
today about mathematics. 



4 TRUTH AND LIFE 

There is no evil in mathematics and there is none 
in Truth. Everything in mathematics is good and 
true; everything in Truth is as truly so. From the 
tiniest atom to the greatest sun mathematics reigns 
in undisturbable accuracy. In even a far more mag- 
nificent range Truth holds her spiritual dominion. 
Mathematics is not a thing to be merely believed in ; 
it is a thing that must be known, if we are to become 
efficient. Truth must be known if we are to become 
free. 

Errors in our belief with regard to it in no way 
disturb the truth of mathematics; it can wait se- 
renely until we see our mistakes. It existed at the 
beginning, it will be at the end. Truth has not been 
perplexed by all the persecutions of the various sects 
against each other. Truth is the eternal Mind of 
God; it can well aflford to wait in its infinite calm 
our acceptance of it. Our acceptance or our rejec- 
tion of either mathematics or Truth affects only our 
individual success or freedom. 

Mathematics has neither problems, failures, nor 
errors ; its principle meets every demand made upon 
it. Truth has stood through its eternity of past and 
will stand through its eternity of future, secure in 
its own perfection and its adequacy to meet every 
human need. 

Mathematics neither accepts an excuse, nor yields 
to ignorance, nor pities immaturities, nor admits a 
failure.' We succeed or fail in proportion to our 
knowledge of it. Truth never abdicates its throne 
out of sympathy for our human frailties or weak- 
nesses. Truth knows that its children have power 
to fulfil all of its requirements and to be free. Its 



TRUTH 5 

sympathy is always with our strength and never 
with our infirmities. 

Prayer. — The human idea of prayer is akin to 
that of the little girl who rushed excitedly to her 
mother with the plea, "Mother, please pray for Bos- 
ton to be the capital of New Jersey." "Why?" was 
the puzzled query. "Because that is the way I have 
written it in my examination papers." Erring sense 
seeks to bend God to its petition, but "ye ask and 
receive not because ye ask amiss." True prayer 
is raising the consciousness into God through the 
correction of our misconception of God's undeviat- 
ing Truth. Truth has amply supplied every need; 
it does not require petitioning. It needs only recog- 
nition to supply any demand. Truth is not some- 
thing upon which to fashion a creed, but a some- 
thing to be applied to every ill for its correction. It 
is the shortest line between two points, a definite 
rule for conduct and work, and the method by 
which to release spiritual power into the conscious- 
ness. 

Jesus divided the human family into two great 
classes, the children of God and the children of the 
world; those who perceive Truth, and those who 
are still subject to material misconceptions. Finite 
sense can know nothing of the spiritual world; its 
horizon is limited to the material beliefs of the race. 
Its conclusions are not the result of Mind but of 
failure to perceive Mind's verities. Only that which 
reveals intelligent choice with regard to means of 
attainment can be called Mind. When working in 
Mind there is constant advancement. When our 
choice is the selection of a means through which 



6 TRUTH AND LIFE 

advancement is impossible, we sin and progress is 
halted. This choice is not of Mind, but outside of 
its principles. 

There being but One Mind, all that is, is in and of 
this Mind. Its innumerable ideas constitute its eter- 
nal activity as they unfold into consciousness. Man 
is spiritually in Mind in the same sense that he is 
physically in air. Air is the common commodity of 
the whole human family. Each member of the race 
has as much air as he has lung capacity to inhale. 
Mind is Truth and in the spiritual realm each has 
as much of the universal Truth as he is conscious 
of and can demonstrate intelligently and accurately. 

Man's Security. — Truth being infinite it is su- 
perior to all mortal beliefs and able to destroy all 
ills. Man is the result of God's self -consciousness, 
and therefore God sees but the Truth of man. He 
sees in man His own absolute perfection. There 
can be no more a fallen man than a fallen God. 
Man is eternally placed in divine Mind, and has 
never been, nor can be other than as he is here. 
Man is God's perfect expression, his "Son," par- 
taker and interpreter of omniscience and omnipo- 
tence. 

The truth of man and the universe is the way God 
is thinking them. The only way anything can pos- 
sibly be, must of necessity be the way it is in Truth. 
This is now recognized even by modern science, 
for the dictum of evolution is, "A thing always is 
what it will finally become,'' All men must ulti- 
mate in the perfect consciousness of what they are 
in God, for this is the only way they ever have been 
in Reality. This established Truth is the rock upon 



TRUTH 7 

which man must base every premise, build every 
structure, demonstrate every problem. "He is the 
Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are 
judgment ; a God of truth and without iniquity, just 
and right is He." 

This established creation is the "stone which the 
builders rejected. The same is become the head of 
the corner. Whosoever shall fall upon that stone 
shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it 
will grind him to powder," said He who knew. So 
long as mortal sense misbuilds it must meet this 
fate. Creation is spiritual, and there is nothing that 
can produce discord or imperfection in the universe 
of God. Truth is spiritual perfection, and Truth's 
lovers have already proved that a knowledge of this, 
even in a small degree, will change the whole tenor* 
of their lives. Character is elevated and purified, 
bodies are healed, competency is developed, society 
IS improved. Progress in Truth will finally bring 
immortality to the consciousness of the race. 

Truth is uncompromising, unyielding, established. 
Ideas are real and tangible to those who are able to 
look past the material beliefs which obscure con- 
sciousness. Truth demands absolute acceptance on 
our part and comes on no other terms than the auto- 
cratic government of every thought and act. He 
who does not build from the Rock finds his work 
spurious, and to sense becomes an impotent failure. 
Untrue thoughts and erroneous beliefs are counter- 
feits and hold their miscreator in their meshes. 
Truth yields neither to you nor me, neither to king 
nor potentate. Those who have not yielded to 
Truth's absolute dominion have found their king- 



8 TRUTH AND LIFE 

doms swept away and their work come to naught. 

Spiritual creation is, nothing can be added to it, 
nothing can be taken from it. From everlasting to 
everlasting it holds its integrity, as immaculate 
as the perfect Mind which conceives it. It must 
be accepted and revealed in the body and work of 
man; for to this end is man born, "to bear witness 
unto the Truth.*' Truth eternally persists in its 
absolute perfection, the destroyer of all that is un- 
like itself. The perception of Truth eradicates the 
error; "forgives the sin" and restores to conscious- 
ness the soul in its perfection. Materiality and 
imperfection have no bases, they are apparent to 
finite sense alone. 

The Invisible Kingdom. — "There is a kingdom on 
this earth though not of it; a kingdom of wider 
bounds than the earth ; wider than the sea and earth 
though they be rolled together as finest gold and 
spread with the beating of hammers. Its existence 
is a fact as our hearts are facts and we journey 
through it from birth to death without seeing it. 
Nor shall any man see it until he has seen his own 
soul, and in its dominion there is glory such as has 
not entered imagination, original, incomparable, im- 
possible of increase.'' Thus writes the author of 
Ben Hur of his vision of Truth. 

Imperishable Truth is always "a light shining in 
the darkness" of human limitation which will not, 
indeed cannot, comprehend it. The seers and 
prophets of the race who transcend finite sense, are 
those who proclaim Truth and who dispel the delu- 
sions of sense. The great vision of Christianity is 
dawning upon humanity two thousand years after its 



TRUTH 9 

revelation. We are breaking through the imprison- 
ing belief that man is subject to matter, and uncover- 
ing the Truth that sets us free. 

The Eternal can be spoken of only in the present 
tense. Past and future refer to facts which change ; 
Truth is changeless Reality, the same yesterday, 
today and forever. He who perceives Truth has 
already died to finite sense, the only death there can 
possibly be in a realm of immortal Life. It is but 
the belief in materiality and separation which with- 
holds Truth from the consciousness of the race. As 
the realm of Spirit becomes real through contempla- 
tion and prayer we lose the sense of separation and 
come into spiritual unity with God and man. 

Of this realm of absolute perfection the authors 
of this book are aware through frequent experi- 
ences. They base their healing ministry entirely 
upon it. Having consciously touched this no joy is 
equal to the experience except the joy of imparting 
it to others. The triumph of principle is from this 
time the only end toward which it is possible to 
work. On this basis the authors of this book have 
founded their lives, and always endeavor to be 
"obedient unto the heavenly vision." 

Healing, — All healing from sin and disease is the 
result of the conscious realization of this realm. 
From the moment God consciousness enters, sin and 
disease cease to be. Truth is the perfection of cre- 
ation; sin and disease are distortions, the result of 
imperfect vision, the astigmatism of human igno- 
rance. "On earth are the broken arcs, in heaven the 
perfect round," sings Robert Browning. Heaven is 
the consciousness of perfection, the insight into 



lo TRUTH AND LIFE 

Truth; earth is the limitation of mortal belief. They 
who perceive Truth may be on earth but can never 
be of it, for man is in Heaven to the extent in which 
he perceives Truth. 

"All knowledge is reminiscence," wrote Plato. 
Jesus is telling us the same essential Truth when he 
says that the Holy Spirit shall bring all things to 
our remembrance. When we perceive Truth we re- 
member from the spiritual vision as we dis-member 
from mortal misconception. As soon as Truth is 
perceived, at the moment a correction from a ma- 
terial belief to the spiritual consciousness is made, 
the true result will appear, for there is no delay in 
Spirit. This has been proven over and over again 
through instantaneous healings, and answers to 
prayer in innumerable instances. If the healing is 
not accomplished, if the prayer is not answered, the 
change has not yet been made in consciousness, and 
the misconception is still held. 

We can never know anything but Truth. It is 
impossible to know anything false, for there is noth- 
ing to know about it. A falsehood is failure to per- 
ceive the Truth, it is a misconception and misin- 
terpretation of Truth. A falsehood therefore is 
nothing itself, but predicates or intimates something 
which we must investigate in order to find the truth 
about it. "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try 
the spirits whether they are of God." Credulity and 
faith are worlds apart. 

The artist paints from a model. The model may 
be a tangible object or it may be one which he has in 
vision, but there can be no picture without the model. 
The race must awaken to the fact that there is a 



TRUTH II 

model world and its sole work is to reproduce it in 
consciousness. Man is a spiritual artist working 
out his salvation through the one medium the Creator 
employed in the creation of the universe, His 
Thought. Man is not the creator of anything, he is 
a being through which, and by which, creation is to 
be interpreted. Truth cannot be interpreted and 
represented until it is comprehended. Knowledge 
of its principles must precede all demonstration 
of it. 

It was long believed that the earth was fiat. While 
under this misconception the race did not have the 
freedom of the globe, could not sail its ships about 
it, nor do that which it is now in a fair way to ac- 
complish with its telephones, telegraphs and wire- 
less, make good Puck's boast to "put a girdle round 
about the earth in forty minutes." 

As this knowledge of the earth gave us the free- 
dom of its surface, so the truth about man and crea- 
tion gives us the freedom of the spiritual realm and 
the consequent mastery of the so-called material 
earth. The Truth has broken our belief in the 
fixedness of the material and enabled us to see that 
all that is established is the perfection of Truth. It 
is the belief that materiality is real that constitutes 
the bondage of the race. To know the Truth that 
man and creation are spiritual is the privilege of the 
Christian believer; and through this knowledge he 
is enabled to rise from the tomb of false beliefs into 
the vital conviction of mastery inherent in his son- 
ship to God. 

To know the truth is to be restored to Mind and 
bring about the harmonious adjustments of all 



12 TRUTH AND LIFE 

human affairs. Knowledge of mathematical prin- 
ciples enables us to make accurate computations, 
correcting all deviations from mathematical bases. 
Knowledge of the spiritual kingdom corrects the 
errors of finite sense and restores to us the peace 
of spiritual discernment. 

The modern equivalent for "forgiveness of sin** 
is correction of error. Jesus cast out the falsities 
of human sense and brought Truth and immortality 
to light. "If I cast out devils (evils, errors, miscon- 
ceptions) then the Kingdom of God is come unto 
you.** So long as we believe the material to be the 
reality, we cannot receive the Truth that eliminates 
the cause of all human ills. The one thing that is 
impossible is to believe a lie and the Truth at the 
same time. 

Unchangeable Reality.— The Alpha and Omega 
are one in God consciousness. In the beginningless 
beginning, the eternal pronouncement of God on 
spiritual creation, "Behold it is very good,** holds 
within itself the endless end when all men, having 
risen above the delusion of a material creation, see 
the perfect kingdom as it always has been, is now 
and ever will be, in the consciousness of Him who 
is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. 

The central Truth of Christianity is the incarna- 
tion, "Christ in you the hope of glory.** Christ is 
man the divine ideal of Mind. Thus is bridged 
what had seemed an impassable gulf, between the 
finite and the Infinite, between the spiritual and so- 
called material. Here we find the relationship of 
God to man, and man to man. God is the Father 
and divine principle of man; man is the son and 



TRUTH 13 

expression of God. To speak of God implies man, 
to speak of man infers God. Man is God's necessity 
even as God is man's necessity. Without man Gk)d 
life would be latent or unexpressed, without God 
man would have no life to express. 

We discover the meaning of man only as we come 
to know God. As number is the basis of mathe- 
matics, as notes are the essentials of music, so man 
is in God and to God. Man, however, differs from 
notes and number in that he is a consciousness, an 
intelligent co-worker with God. As the Father 
hath life in himself (and consciousness of that life) 
so hath He given to the Son to have life in himself, 
(and discernment to become conscious of that life). 
Number, notes and man are eternal inherencies of 
their principles, their consequence and revealers and 
have no existence nor meaning apart from this. 

The Rhythmic Universe. — Man has not invented 
number. He has discovered the mathematical ac- 
curacy of all creation, and number dawns through 
his consciousness to express the principle. Notes 
have been discovered in the principle of music, and 
named in order to make them comprehensible. Mu- 
sic, the harmonious rhythmic expression of life, is 
everywhere present, and is released into our con- 
sciousness through recurrent notes. Aristotle per- 
ceived that "the universe was created and is sus- 
tained by a musical law," and Herbert Spencer in 
his "First Principles'' gives an insight into this in 
the chapter, "The Rhythm of Motion." 

Man has become conscious of himself rhythmically 
and has through this law of rhythm recorded in 
consciousness the wonders of the human body. The 



14 TRUTH AND LIFE 

inhalation and exhalation of breathing, the diastole 
and systole rhythm of pulse and heart are records 
of the invasion of the harmonies of the spiritual 
world into the consciousness of man. We become 
more sensitized to the "music of the spheres'' as we| 
progress in Truth. 

The work of man universal, like that of Jesus, is 
the revelation of the Father through the Son. Ex- 
cept as man reveals the Father his life has no mean- 
ing. Under mortal misconception man does not^ 
represent his true nature but persistently exempli- 
fies the Preacher's verdict: "Lo, this have I found, 
that God hath made man upright; but they have 
sought out many inventions." Truth alone enables 
man to be truly representative of his spiritual na- 
ture, for he then has the model in vision. "The Son 
doeth nothing but what he seeth the Father do.'' 

God knows no man but his representative, the 
spiritual man. His communication in him is con- 
tinuous revelation. He can never know "mortal" 
or "material" man, for there is nothing of him to 
know. The mortal is he who has been "conceived in 
iniquity and born in sin," a misconception of finite 
sense. He who has a true idea of man can never 
have a false conception of him. From beginning to 
end "mortal" man is nothing but a false conception 
about man. The earth was never flat, regardless of 
the error long held with regard to its surface. The 
music of the spheres knows no break in its rhythmic 
continuity no matter how great the discord apparent 
to the untrained sense of mortality. Mathematics 
knows no error. Inharmony and errors exist in 



TRUTH 15 

sense concepts only, they are corrected when we lift 
consciousness to Truth. 

Omnipresence, — Truth fills the universe as the 
waters fill the sea — "earth's crammed with heaven." 
In his essay on God, Calthorpe employs for an illus- 
tration an inch of space midway between Sirius and 
the sun. The scientist, he tells us, passes through 
his spectroscope heat waves, light waves, color 
waves of wonderful beauty and delicacy, deepening 
in brilliancy, each group passing through that inch 
at the same time, yet each maintaining its absolute 
independence. The power, the beauty, the love, the 
economy, the exactness, the fulness of God are reg- 
istered in that inch. The principle of all that is, is 
registered in that inch, because the mind of God is 
indivisible and it is everywhere complete. 

To fail to see the All everywhere present is no 
proof that it is not there. The failure proves merely 
the spiritual inexperience of the observer. He has 
failed to perceive the "fulness of him who fiUeth all 
with all." God is a perfect being, filling the uni- 
verse with His perfect substance, in which His per- 
fect ideas are held in eternal perfection. The stu- 
dent will find it much easier to locate himself in 
God, than to locate God in himself. Mind cannot 
be confined in anything, yet it manifests itself 
through all things. Man is absolutely subordinate 
and dependent upon God and this aspect enables us 
to yield ourselves to Him without reservation. 

The great goal towards which the whole creation 
moves is perfection. When we perceive Truth, the 
task is imposed of making every thought conform 
to it by bringing "every thought into captivity to 



i6 TRUTH AND LIFE 

Christ." As art is the elimination of non-essentials, 
so in Truth the first thing which we must do is to get 
rid of the vast accumulation of beliefs which have 
no bases in Truth. Then follows the rigid discipline 
of thought and act until brought into perfect con- 
formity to the model of spiritual Reality. Only in 
this stronghold are we secure, and if we build our 
bodies, our houses, and our work upon this estab- 
lished Rock, the storms of mortality will beat upon 
them in vain; they cannot be destroyed for they 
are composed of the essence of the Eternal. 

Spiritual Receptivity, — Education is the prepara- 
tion we make in order to eradicate human miscon- 
ceptions and make way for God's Truth. Beauty 
and harmony are the handmaidens of Truth, and he 
who would hold Truth must perceive that perfection 
alone is ultimate; he must train the eye to see, at- 
tune the ear to hear and open the soul to receive it. 
As we do this we cease to try by human effort to 
comprehend anything and we find the short way to 
all knowledge and accomplishment. The Spirit of 
Truth leads into all Truth as we yield to its guid- 
ance, and through it we find the real things of life 
which were hidden by sense illusions. 

He who desires Truth must arise each morning 
into a clearer perception of it. He must win a fresh 
victory each day. Truth abides with no one who 
does not love and honor it by the use of all that he 
sees. The streams of Truth broaden and deepen 
as the way of consciousness is kept open, and it 
floods the one who keeps himself under the vision, 
and carries him out into the illimitable ocean of 
power. 



TRUTH 17 

Humility, patience, absolute integrity in all the 
transactions of life, conscientious effort to hold fast 
to the vision of Truth and translate it into thought, 
body and work must be the steadfast purpose of 
those who would progress. "He that endureth to 
the end shall be saved;*' and to the One who thus 
spake there was no end, save demonstration of "all 
Truth/' The secret of all great lives and accom- 
plishment is to "live as seeing the invisible" Truth ; 
to perceive the ideas of Infinity and to wait, watch 
and work continuously in its light. This eventually 
results in the conviction of spiritual Reality and thus 
we become free citizens of an unlimited universe. 

Every truth perceived sets us free to the extent 
that we accept it ; and progress demands that we use 
all the Truth we perceive. This does not mean that 
we should live continuously in a state of abstract 
mystic exaltation; but it does mean that we should, 
with balanced saneness, go through our daily duties 
perceiving a truer way of doing our work and gain- 
ing new inspiration for a larger and better expres- 
sion of life. To know Truth begin to use it just 
where you are, on the problem that confronts you 
today. When we know Truth all time is concen- 
trated in the now, all opportunity is here, for "Be- 
loved, now are we sons of God." 

Behind every mortal thought stands Truth, and 
he who sees is "a repairer of the breach." We leave 
a trail of benediction in our path as we live in the 
light of Truth, and over that trail the whole human 
race may pass from under serfdom to material be- 
liefs into the large free life of the "grace and 
Truth" of the Spirit. 



CHAPTER II 
GOD. 

We have felt the heart of the Silence 

Throb with a soundless word; 

And by the inward ear alone 

The Spirit's voice we heard. 

And the spoken word is written 

On air, and wave and sod; 

And the bending walls of sapphire 

Blaze with the thought of God. 

—Whittier, (Altered.) 

Beauty through my senses stole, 

I yielded myself to the perfect whole. 

— Emerson, 

This is life eternal, to know Thee the only true 
God. — Jesus. 

The New Vision, — Many books have been written 
about God ; the subject can never be exhausted. The 
purpose of this book, however, is not to offer a 
philosophic dissertation about Him, but to clarify 
some misunderstood principles, and to afford the 
earnest student the aid by which he may be led into 
that unity with God which is his realization of the 
"life abundant.'' To know God, to comprehend life, 
to interpret spiritual realities is the destination of 
the race as a whole, and is the reason for the exis- 
tence of each individual being. 

In passing from the anthropomorphic or "unlim- 
ited monarch" misconception of Grod, to the insight 

i8 



GOD 19 

of Him as Infinite Being holding the vast universe 
in His Consciousness, we have each felt as did Mary 
at the tomb : "They have taken away my Lord, and 
I know not where they have laid him/' Even as 
she spoke her risen and glorified Lord was stand- 
ing beside her, and thus stands overshadowing us a 
Father who is infinitely nearer, "Closer than breath- 
ing, nearer than hands or feet,*' as infinitely higher 
than our former belief of Him as God's thoughts 
are higher than our thoughts. 

Who is this Being? What is His nature? What 
is His relation to us ? Can we know Him as He is, 
in the same sense in which we know each other ? 

The present writers answer this last question with 
a positive and unqualified affirmative. They know 
Him, and this not merely from what they have read 
in books, or from what preachers have taught them. 
The knowledge of God claimed by them has come 
from revelation, and the experience covering years 
of public ministry. God has been experienced. He 
has been tested by the acid test of life itself, and 
never has He been found wanting. 

How God Is Known. — Is it not through experi- 
ence and testings that we know each other? How 
otherwise can we know each other? Surely not by 
the color of our eyes, the height of our figures, or 
a knowledge of our personal accomplishments. We 
know each other only as we perceive each other's 
inner nature, and touch that which responds to our 
silent demand as to our spoken word. Our social 
relationships are all of a spiritual nature, and it is 
by those only that we know each other. Our rela- 
tionship with God is of a spiritual nature, and it is 



20 TRUTH AND LIFE 

because of this quality of the relationship that w< 
can perceive and know God in the fullest sense of] 
the words. 

It is the nature of God to seek man, it is the na- 
ture of man to seek God, and the ''meeting" is 
inevitable. The Spirit of God seeks its outlet, the 
spirit of man seeks its Source. Love begets love, 
and is regained again in love and God is expresse( 
only as man responds to His love by consciously 
knowing and loving Him. To experience God we 
must love. One who has not experienced love foi 
another cannot experience love for God. We ar( 
one with God as we lose our lives in love. "Whoso- 
ever loveth another is born of God," and "If a man 
love not his brother whom he hath seen, how can 
he love God whom he hath not seen?" It is alon< 
the experience of love which lifts us into God, and 
enables us to partake of His essence ; for the essence 
of God is love. 

To love is to lose the heavy burden of self, and 
to fly from self to others. One who is chained in 
one spot cannot make visits ; love unchains the pris- 
oner in self, that he may freely visit others. Love 
is a sense of ease for one is away from himself 
when he loves. "Love is the flight of one soul to 
another," and we are liberated from the prison of 
self through love, and the wings upon which we fly 
to another, carry us into the very heart of God. 

Love enables us to lose ourselves in our work, so 
that we bring our ideals to realization. Love is the 
energizing and quickening Power. Until we love, 
we are filled with unrest, which renders us inefficient 
and ineffectual. Unrest is the friction of a prisoner 



GOD 21 

of sense, rest is the free action of the soul in love. 
Thinking in material terms we have severed our- 
selves from the universal order in our conscious- 
} ness ; but love restores us to that order. We think 
' in human impotency ideals beyond our ability to 
make real ; but in God our ideals and our powers are 
harmonized and balanced and we become producers 
and creators, for we perceive the ideal ultimate, and 
true insight compels production "after its kind." 

We proclaim through our knowledge of God a 
world-religion because it deals with the elemental, 
instinctive, universal, man's craving for life. We 
know because we have proven it, that men can gain 
that knowledge which enables them to live ade- 
quately, completely, overflowingly. This knowledge 
is amazingly simple, yet ample in its powers, self- 
evidencing in its application. If we want life, real 
life, we must know God who is Life. To have that 
quality of life which gives a continuous sense of 
peace, competency and joy, we must know Him as 
Father, true, wise and powerful, we must reverence 
Him and live with Him in Spirit and in Truth. 

The natural outcome of knowing God is to know 
ourselves. We learn to think of ourselves as God's 
children, obedient, trustful, self-sacrificing and effi- 
cient. We learn with the spiritual ideal in con- 
sciousness to maintain a standard of thought, word 
and deed, whatever the cost to self-interest. We 
learn to regard our fellow man as we regard our- 
selves and to mete to him the measure we desire 
to have meted to ourselves. Thus it is that we come 
to know God and to keep sustained contact with 
Him. 



22 TRUTH AND LIFE 

When we know God we become conscious of oui 
at-one-ment with Him, for in that knowledge then 
is no sense of separation. The beHef of separation* 
from God and each other is the only evil. The 
atonement of Jesus was the destruction of the sense 
of separateness through his knowledge of the unity 
of God and man. "In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God, and the Word was 
God." The Word is God's eternal Idea Man. This 
eternal Word of God, which is the real of each of 
us, is perfectly formed spiritual man. The spiritual 
world is made up of perfect beings, held intact in 
the Consciousness of Him in whom "there is no 
variableness nor shadow of turning." "Beauty old, 
yet ever new, eternal Voice and inward Word." It 
is when we apprehend the real in ourselves and in 
others, that we know God ; love then is compulsory. 
Love being the mainspring of Life, it is the one 
means we have of knowing. Love is Life in ex- 
pression. The lover knows his beloved. One who 
loves God, knows Him. 

God, the Infinite Person. — Since we can thus com- 
panion with God, He not only exists, but He is a 
Being, — a Being with the attributes of what we call 
personality. An abstraction is unknowable. We 
can have knowledge only of concrete Realities. 
Those who have experienced God — and there are 
many in this age, for the open vision is upon us — 
know that God is the ever-living Some One who 
answers when we call upon Him, not audibly, but 
by Spirit's own means of communication, "the still, 
small voice." We, too, set to our seals that God is, 



GOD 23 

and that He is a fountain of living water, having 
drunk of which, we thirst no more. 

We have discovered God through his effects — 
mind, life and power. These are all attributes of a 
person. God thinks, wills and loves; He is, there- 
fore, the Infinite Person. Man thinks, wills and 
loves, because these attributes of his are his inheri- 
tance from his Divine Father. 

In the Standard Dictionary, the following defini- 
tion is given of the term "personality" : "That which 
constitutes a person; conscious separate existence, 
as an intelligent and voluntary being. Only a per- 
son is capable of a moral act." Personality, there- 
fore, predicates the moral order which we know per- 
vades the universe. Purpose is the innate char- 
acteristic of a person only, and it is to purpose we 
awaken with the knowledge of God. God, we have 
discovered, is the omnipresent, omniscient, omnipo- 
tent Personality ; "in which we live, move and have 
our being." God is Mind, Spirit, Truth, Love, Soul, 
Substance, Consciousness. God is all there is, and 
He is equally present everywhere. 

God, the Translator of Life, — Since God is infi- 
nite Mind, all that exist are ideas of this Mind's 
infinite thinking. We know these ideas only by 
knowing God. From this spiritual eminence alone 
can we perceive the idea in Him, and know its 
reality. God's Mind thinks perfectly, so that all the 
ideas of His Mind are perfect in form and sub- 
stance. What we see as imperfect, is due to the im- 
perfect conception of finite sense. 

The so-called "material" world is the appearance 
which the universe presents to finite sense. This 



24 TRUTH AND LIFE 

appearance is sense error. It is only through spir- 
itual sight that we perceive God and the universe in 
their reality, and so correct our sense errors. 
*'Now," said Paul, speaking of finite sense, "we see 
through the glass darkly; but then," speaking of 
spiritual consciousness, "face to face." Creation 
has not changed, but we have been changed so that 
what was dim before is clear in spiritual illumina- 
tion. We rise out of sense outsight into spiritual 
insight. "Spiritual things must be spiritually dis- 
cerned," and since all there is — God and His uni- 
verse — is spiritual, we see them only when we per- 
ceive them spiritually. 

God, the infinitely perfect Being, whose omnis- 
cience IS the conscious intelligence which is the 
creative power of the universe, whose omnipotence 
holds the stars in their courses and man in immortal 
security, this omnipresent, mysterious yet revelatory 
Personality defies definition or description. Defini- 
tion necessarily limits the limitless, and description 
leaves far more unsaid than it describes. Yet this 
we know, and know without a doubt, that shining 
behind the shadows of sense, the great Presence 
abides eternally, real to those who have the sight 
to perceive Him, filling His universe with His In- 
telligence and Love. Like a soldier standing senti- 
nal on the watch-tower, we must watch, wait and 
work to be in the consciousness with this living, 
benign Presence. Those who believe that there is 
another power than this one Power, another pres- 
ence than this one Presence, and that they can know 
what is not included in His Omniscience, are stay- 



GOD 25 

ing at the inn where there is no room for Christ to 
be born. 

To Know God Is to Live. — God is life, "the in- 
finite and eternal energy from whence all things 
proceed." He is the creative Power, forever pro- 
hibiting inertia from entering the domain of Reality. 
Life is continually and continuously new, fresh and 
impelling. To realize life is to be immortal, for it 
is to be in harmony with the creative activity of 
Divine Power. No disease, no sorrow, no sin can 
enter this world. We rise into the resurrection and 
the life as we cast out the deception of sense. 

"God is Spirit, and they who worship Him must 
worship Him in spirit and in truth." We leave the 
world of sense delusions and illusions to find the 
Spirit Reality established, immutable, indelible. 
God is the illuminating consciousness in which we 
awaken from the night of sense. God is the light 
forever shining in the darkness, but the darkness 
of finite sense comprehendeth it not. 

God is Truth, and Truth is the nature of things, 
not what they appear to be to those who are spiritu- 
ally blind. When we come into God, we correct the 
errors of sense, for we discern the ideas of Infinite 
Mind in their eternal verity. We know God be- 
cause we have realized Him in our consciousness. 
We commune with Him and when in this divine 
communion we have the conscious experience of 
loving and of being loved. When we have risen 
above material beliefs, the self is no longer con- 
ceived of as a separate entity, for we are then one 
with God in Mind universal. 

To Know God Is Man's Destiny. — God's creation 



26 TRUTH AND LIFE 

is the revelation and manifestation of Himself. 
Each and every idea in some way expresses Him. 
Man is the summation of all the ideas of the infinite 
whole, "the compound idea of God including all 
right ideas," as Mrs. Eddy expresses it. 

Jesus discovered the character of God and exem- 
plified it in his own life. God's nature is com- 
pounded of life, truth and love. These are the 
elements with which man must work to become 
conscious of his destiny. Jesus could say of himself, 
"Who hath seen me hath seen the Father," because 
He conceived of God and man wholly after the 
Spirit. The destiny of the human race is the re- 
alization of Spiritual Reality and its demonstration 
in every sphere of human activity. 

Life is infinite and Truth eternally established. 
A material conception of Life and Truth can never 
interpret them. It is when we understand them 
spiritually that we begin to work in Spirit and in 
Truth. God thinks, wills and loves in the perfect 
kingdom of the Spirit; and man, God's image, is an 
eternal citizen of this kingdom. Man is perfect even 
as his Father in Heaven is perfect ; but through his 
material misconceptions he does not "represent, but 
misrepresents himself." 

We can never see the real of anything with the 
eyes of sense. No one has seen Truth, yet Truth is 
the solid rock on which are built the Realities of 
the universe. No one has seen Love, yet as surely 
as Life is. Love is ; and those who have experienced 
it are so certain of its existence that material things 
seem unreal by comparison. 

No one has seen God, yet God is the one veri- 



GOD 27 

fiable Reality of the universe. Lalande, the astron- 
omer, searched the heavens with his telescope and 
triumphantly announced that there was no God, be- 
cause he could not find Him. No Reality is found 
in that way. God is not found by means of tele- 
scopes, microscopes, or chemical retorts. To find 
God we must perceive and experience Him spirit- 
ually, because God is Spirit. And it is likewise 
with man; to find our fellow man we must per- 
ceive and experience him spiritually. You may 
examine your friend's body, cell by cell, with the 
aid of a microscope, but your friend is not to be 
found in that way. Man is as invisible to sense as 
is God, because man, like God, is a being of Spirit. 

The Self 'Surrender of God, — When we find God 
we find ourselves and the meaning of life becomes 
clear. Each one has to make three discoveries for 
himself : the discovery of God, the discovery of self, 
and the discovery of his work; and the three are 
one. Work is service and as God and man are mu- 
tually interdependent, as is also man and man, the 
activities of life move through the service each ren- 
ders the other. In service alone man attains his 
highest joy, for in service he achieves the purpose 
of his life. "The Son of Man cometh not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister'' Service is man's 
supreme joy, because it is God's supreme joy. Jesus 
uncovered the spiritual world and discovered the 
Creator at work in unceasing service to His whole 
creation. 

God's life is an absolute surrendering in service 
to man. He gives Himself and all that He is with- 
out measure to His children. He created man that 



28 TRUTH AND LIFE 

He should have a being in which He could spend 
His life and love, and that He would have a being 
of like intelligence to His own who should love Him 
and be beloved of Him. All that God is, all that 
He has, are forever given to His children and they 
may freely partake. His wisdom is their unerring 
guide, His substance their unfailing supply, His 
harmony their undisturbable atmosphere, His love 
the beauty and graciousness in which their lives are 
embraced. 

Omnipotence encompasses man, not as his Master 
but as his Servant. "Concerning the works of my 
hands command thou me" God says to man. The 
highest reach of God's service to man is revealed by 
Jesus in Luke's record: "Let your loins be girded 
about and your lights burning; and ye yourselves, 
like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will 
return from the wedding; that when He cometh 
and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 
Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when 
He cometh, shall find watching; verily I say unto 
you, that He shall gird Himself and make them to 
sit down to meat and will come forth and serve 
them." 

What an astounding and magnificent revelation 
of God this parable is ! God is the servant and man 
the served. God, the creator and controller of the 
entire universe, is the gracious Host, waiting to at- 
tend His guest-children at their call! It is this, 
God's love for mankind, His children, that is the 
pivotal point of Christianity — the love that is abso- 
lute self-surrender and service. God's love is the 
surrender of His mind, His power and His sub- 



GOD 29 

stance to His children. All that He is, all that He 
has, are spread before us waiting our intelligent 
recognition and acceptance of the gifts. 

We obtain an insight into the universe as it is, and 
experience God's own nature when we receive spir- 
itual love. And there is no other love. Grod is 
infinite love, infinite life, infinite perfection. He 
fills all creation and there is nothing other than He. 
There can, therefore, be nothing unlike Him. God 
gives all good by just being His gracious Self. God 
can do nothing less than bestow all that He has and 
is, because this is His nature. He is unchanging, 
eternal, perfect, and His expression man is as Him- 
self. To know God aright is life eternal, for this 
is an impelling to right thinking and right living. 
It is useless to ask God for that which He has 
already bestowed. Our work is to accept it and 
weave it into the fabric of our own thought and life. 

Daily we must enter His Kingdom in prayer, com- 
mune with the Host and partake of His infinite 
perfection and power. It is in the secret place of 
the Most High that we learn to know Him and 
receive His services. To dwell in this secret place is 
to be in sustained contact with Him; it is to be 
conscious that only God is real, and that in Him is 
all power, all substance, all joy and all life. To live 
"under the shadow of the Almighty,'' is to be in 
selfless love. It is impossible not to be healed, re- 
newed and enriched if we conform to the demands 
of the spiritual life, because in fulfilling them we are 
in the same consciousness with the Father Himself. 
Watch for this Mind, halt and examine every 



30 TRUTH AND LIFE 

thought before accepting it, and reject all that does 
not come from Him. 

"Acquaint thyself now with Him and be at peace, 
thereby good shall come unto thee/' The only way 
to Life, Truth and Love is to know God. To know 
God is to stand on the rock of Divine Principle, 
from which knowledge expands as the dawn broad- 
ens into day. To comprehend God with what we 
call human intelligence is impossible. We only truly 
know another as we see him in his home, here the 
innate characteristics are revealed. We do not know 
God until we have been in His Home, which is His 
Consciousness. "Prove me now herewith, saith the 
Lord of Hosts, if I will not open to you the win- 
dows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that 
there shall not be room enough to receive it," Not 
one of us has room to hold the blessings we receive 
in God; we must spend our lives in giving them 
away. 

It is God's delight to serve man. When Jesus 
discovered that to gain life we must first lose it, he 
perceived that God gains His life by imparting it 
to us, for He gains expression of His life through 
us. Man finds his Hfe only as he loses it in service 
for the welfare of humanity. Life is free circula- 
tion, congestion is death. To the consecrated soul 
this giving is its natural outflow, and it works un- 
weariedly that all, from the least to the greatest, 
may know God. 

The Pure in Heart See God, — Only the pure in 
heart can see God, because God is Spirit. To be 
pure in spirit is to be free from selfishness or any 
material misconceptions of life. It is the X-ray of 



GOD 31 

spiritual vision by which we perceive the ideas of 
Infinite Mind and their universal manifestations. 
To the pure in heart the material is reduced to its 
native nothingness, a false conception of Reality. 
The attainment of purity brings us into that rela- 
tionship with God, which enables us to receive and 
reflect the beauty of His character as the perfect 
mirror reflects the image in front of it. Man is the 
mirror in which God contemplates His own perfec- 
tion. 

It is to His lovers alone that God gives the su- 
preme revelation. Love is self-surrender and is the 
avenue through which we receive and reflect the 
eternal things of the Spirit. Love is independent of 
the eyes, ears or human heart. It is beyond all that 
the human mind knows of life, beyond anything 
that mortals have known or dreamed of as happi- 
ness. Through love we put on immortality and 
enter the realm which is the home of the eternal 
child of God. "Eye hath not seen, ear hath not 
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, 
the things which God hath prepared for those who 
love Him.'' 

Note well, that the great things which the Spirit 
has for His lovers have already been prepared. It 
is human vacillation to delay accepting them. The 
great Host is most graciously waiting to bestow His 
all upon us. The robe of His Consciousness, the 
ring of His Power, the shoes of His Understanding 
await every returning prodigal. God's gifts are 
spiritual because God can give us nothing but what 
He, Himself, is. Health for the body, love for the 
soul, intelligence for the mind, deep-seated peace 



32 ^^ TRUTH AND LIFE ^^^ 

and a never-failing joy, a consciousness of effi- 
ciency undreamed of before, these are all gifts of 
the Spirit. And He who cares for the sparrow, 
has gifts for our external needs also. He is the 
substance of all that we need and for which we 
hope. In all and about all is full opportunity for 
the expression of every faculty and ample supply 
for every need, for wherever God is, all that He is, 
is there in completion. 

Of all the gifts bestowed by God upon His lovers, 
by far the greatest is the gift of His companionship. 
In the secret trysting place of the Most High won- 
derful ideas are disclosed and imparted. Of this 
meeting is born an appreciation of the good, the 
true and the beautiful. When we come thus to 
know God, we acquire the child-like ability to meet 
tranquilly all experiences, to be simple, true and 
noble. We are convinced of the final triumph of 
right, and work out the task that is ours in love 
and patience. 

To be "absent from the body and present with 
God," is our only criterion for judgment. External 
objects give us only appearances, and the eternal 
mandate of Christianity is, that we shall not judge 
from this basis. To know God lies with the ideal 
Reality, the spiritual ideas that exist behind ap- 
pearances. The consciousness of man perceives 
Truth in the spiritual world when it transcends 
human limitation, for Truth lies in the innate nature 
of Mind, in which man has his being. We do not 
investigate Truth as a realm external to us; the 
world of ideas lies within our intelligence. The 
subject thinking and the ideas it is thinking are one, 



I 



GOD 33 

and to know them is the agreement of the mind 
with itself. "Consciousness, therefore, is the sole 
basis of certainty. The mind is its own witness. 
Reason sees in itself that which is above itself as its 
source; and again that which is below itself as still 
itself once more." When in God we know, and we 
know with a certainty that cannot be swerved or 
changed. 

Through communion with God man enters the 
Holy of Holies. We perceive then that the spiritual 
world is the existence of ideas in established rela- 
tionship with the Mind in which they exist. We 
do not know the Infinite merely through the percep- 
tion of ideas. There is a stillness above the distinct 
perception of separate ideas, by which they are all 
merged into one as it were, and we receive the 
Great Idea, which includes all and in which the 
divine essence is communicated to us. The percep- 
tion of Truth is one in which all the senses unite 
in one sense, through which you become the Thinker 
and become incapable of analyzing objects apart 
from yourself. Here we are liberated from the 
finite sense, lose self and find God, the All. Like 
alone can comprehend like, and it is as we lose the 
finite sense, that we become one with the Infinite. 
In and through this process we reduce the universe 
of ideas into Consciousness itself, and we lose and 
find ourselves through divine identity with God. 

The balanced and effective life is the daily flight 

that we take into God, and coming down from this 

mount of transfiguration utilizing the knowledge, 

wisdom and love thus gained in the solution of the 

li problems of the human family. To walk about 



34 TRUTH AND LIFE 

among the children of men, with the light and 
power we have thus gained is to walk in the power 
of the Son of God. The vision of Reality abides 
with no one who quits work to entertain it. To 
keep the Vision we must work from it, transferring 
the divine ideas into the body, character and work. 
More than this we must impart this Spirit to every 
one that we meet. We must so train the thought 
that we can think in no other terms than the spir- 
itual ; that we have no other work than the spiritual ; 
no love, no life apart from God. Thus we dispel the 
darkness of mortality through the dispersion of the 
light of spirituality. 

The Consciousness of God upon us illumines the 
light of the sun itself, and all the objects in the 
world are so clear that we see them as they are. 
We see through the outer vesture into the Soul of 
all beings, the plants, the animals, men and women, 
in their true being and order; as though we were 
looking through a huge microscope, and we our- 
selves were one with the whole scene. It is as 
though with the sun present the stars were all 
merged into it. This is perfected seeing and hear- 
ing. The Vision of wholeness eradicates the di- 
visions of finite sense. In this consciousness we 
have power to determine what is best to do under 
all circumstances, without vacillation or argument. 
Once we have experienced this we know the exact 
science of religion is unfolding upon us, that there 
is a permanent and universal consciousness, to which 
we have access, and that it is ours as we identify 
ourselves with it. 

When in God we see the definite outlines of the 



GOD 35 

spiritual world. The world of sense is vague, cha- 
otic, fragmentary, incomplete. In Spirit we are in 
the super-dimensional and super-sensual world. 
This realm can be entered only as we still the clamor 
of mortal thought and receive spiritual Reality. "If 
thou canst for awhile cease from all thinking and 
willing, thou shalt hear unspeakable words of God.'* 
Thought is the inherency of Mind, and Mind is God. 
We hinder the expression of Mind through indulg- 
ence in false thinking. "The hand that smites thee 
is thine own." 

"When the world perceiveth the fire of love in the 
children of God, it saith they are turned fools, but 
to the children of God it is the greatest treasure, so 
great that no life can express it, nor tongue so much 
as name what the inflaming love of God is; it is 
whiter than the sun, and sweeter than anything; it 
is far more nourishing than meat and drink, and 
more pleasant than all the joy of this world. Who- 
soever getteth this is richer than any king on earth, 
more noble than any emperor can be, and more 
potent and strong than all authority and power." 
Thus, Jacob Behmen, from his rich spiritual ex- 
perience writes. 

To live in God is to enjoy true peace, for then 
we are above pain and suffering. There is no pain 
in Infinite Mind, and to be in pain or to suffer is 
human resistance to the dominion of Mind. When 
we know God we become conscious by eternal neces- 
sity of the inherent genius within ourselves, for 
"The Father and I are one." Then God through 
the prism of our consciousness and through our 
willing obedience reveals His eternal ideas. Earth 



36 TRUTH AND LIFE 

beliefs are all destroyed as Heaven becomes real, 
anxiety, fear, resistance and condemnation for any 
one or any thing touch us no more. All things be- 
come new, for we see the soul of things animate, 
and even those things which seem inanimate to sense 
reveal meaning and purpose. All is well forever- 
more once we have left the confines of mortal limi- 
tation. There is no place, no time where God is not 
invisibly visible to those who love Him. We hear 
above the clamor of sense the angel's song, "Peace 
on earth, good will among men.** 

When we know God an infinite trust holds stead- 
fast the consciousness. We know that He is our 
"Almighty Resource,'* and can never fail us in any 
thing or at any time. We know that He who has 
thought us into existence will continue to think us 
according to His Consciousness until we stand in 
His Resurrection. That which God began in us He 
will finish. His Ideal in man must be expressed, for 
failure with God is impossible. The Real of each 
is hid with Christ in God, and "there is nothing 
hidden which shall not be revealed." "When God 
is with us," said Josephus, "the impossible becomes 
possible.'* 

We are never alone, for an all embracing love 
enfolds us. In the gorgeous colors of sunset, from 
the hearts of flowers, through the purple haze of 
mountain and hill, in the comradeship of friends, 
the great companion reveals himself to us and re- 
alizes His Presence for us. 

We are never alone. In the privacy of our cham- 
bers, in the wide spaces of our fields and valleys, 
in the depths of the forests, the Great Lover ever 



GOD 37 

waits and watches to give us of His splendid riches, 
His joy complete when we accept them. 

We who know God are eager to tell the good news 
of His Presence and availability. We are work- 
ing to dispense His gifts of healing from sin, dis- 
ease and sorrow. We would take Him at His word 
and bring back to our fellow-man the image of that 
perfection which was his "When the morning stars 
sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy." 
This deep unalloyed joy is ours as we leave the 
vitiated valleys of mortal delusions and pitch our 
tents towards the dwelling place of light. "In thy 
Light, we see Light." Already there is falling upon 
us some of that glory which we had with Him 
before the creation of the world. "Vistas of glory 
incessant and branching," open continuously. Hav- 
ing once experienced divine illumination, nothing and 
no one is foreign or alien, all become our very own, 
for life is indivisibly one, and that One, OUR 
FATHER-MOTHER-GOD. 

"Waiting the word of the Master, 
Watching the hidden Light; 
Listening to catch His orders 
In the very midst of the fight. 
Seeing His slightest signal 
Across the heads of the throng, 
Hearing His lightest whisper 
Above earth*s loudest song." 



CHAPTER III 
THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PRINCIPLE. 

Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord. — 
Deut 6:4. 

Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make 
you free. — ^John 8:32. 

Knowing God and Knowing His Law, — There 
cannot be a principle without a principal; the one 
is the inevitable consequence of the other. A prin- 
cipal is "one who has controlling authority or in- 
fluence," and principle is defined as, "a settled law 
or rule of action." The Principal of the universe 
is its Thinker, and Principles are what He thinks 
and the way He thinks things. In order to know 
the Truth that makes free, it is necessary to per- 
ceive these distinctions, because thought is the tool 
through which we work and express ourselves. 
Ideas which are distinct and definite, cast forms that 
are clear-cut and perfect. Our bodies, our houses, 
our art work of every description are thought forms. 

Jesus, called the Principal, "Father," because He 
is the one Source of all life, and His relationship to 
His children is the protecting shelter and compre- 
hending love of a Father whose Divine Will and 
eternal purpose is to give the Kingdom to these 
children. His beloved heirs. Spiritual education 
consists in learning the principles of life in order 
that we be able to receive our inheritance. The 

38 



PRINCIPAL AND PRINCIPLE 39 

eternal speech of God to man is through principles. 
So long as we are unable to solve any problem in the 
universe our spiritual education is incomplete; spir- 
itual efficiency is the ability to meet any demand 
made upon it with a joyous conviction of mastery. 

Principle is a rule of thought and action ; it is the 
basic and fundamental activity of spiritual power; 
it demonstrates its own exactness. One may know 
much about principles, but to know a particular 
principle is another thing altogether. Knowledge 
of a principle is obtained by experiment and by 
demonstrating that it meets the demand. We never 
know a principle until we have demonstrated it. 
What we have proved enters into our consciousness 
and is the sum total of our knowledge. What we 
know about a principle is a perception which we 
must work out until we have reduced it to actual 
knowledge, and it has become subject to us through 
demonstration. 

The Atonement, — The doctrine of the Atonement 
is a paradox. It is at once a sublime truth and a 
monstrous error. The truth lies in the fact that 
Jesus attained his freedom by making his at-one- 
ment with' God and thus fulfilling the Principle. The 
error is in the interpretation that because he did 
this, it in any way absolves us from being obliged 
to do it also. Jesus did it because the compulsion 
and impulsion of the Principal exact the fulfillment 
of the principle, and the inspiration of his life is 
the revelation of spiritual knowledge and power 
which enabled him to make this demonstration. 
The resurrection of Jesus prefigures that which 
must take place in all men. 



40 TRUTH AND LIFE 

Christianity lays down two great mandates. First : 
"This is life eternal to know thee the only true God," 
which is the fundamental of the Principal. Second : 
"Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make 
you free," which is the fundamental of the Prin- 
ciple. To understand the teachings of Christianity 
and receive its freedom it is essential to realize that 
although freedom is a bequest to man from God, 
it must also be a conquest of man through his com- 
prehension of divine principles. Man has been 
compelled to discern that all life is governed by 
principles which he cannot disregard without en- 
tailing pain and suffering ; that he becomes free from 
material ills in proportion to his knowledge and ap- 
plication of these principles. 

How may we gain the splendid freedom Jesus 
realized? As we study the short record of his 
life we are amazed at the freedom to which he at- 
tained. God from Whom we have received the 
ability to think placed no limitation on our capacity 
to develop and exercise this power. Under the 
penalty of disaster, we are obliged to learn to think 
and work in principles. Beginning and ending in 
principle, that is the way God thinks us; we are 
under the compulsion of learning the truth about 
ourselves. Otherwise we find that the power which 
makes us akin to God is destructive and disastrous, 
holding us in the excruciating tortures of a self- 
made hell. Through knowledge of spiritual prin- 
ciples we release ourselves into a God-made heaven. 
Faithfully thinking and working in Mind Principles 
is the way to freedom. 

The Freedom of Jesus. — To comprehend the great 



PRINCIPAL AND PRINCIPLE 41 

Nazarene we must understand, first and foremost, 
that he was a human being with the same nature 
as the rest of the human family. The problems 
that confront us are the problems that confronted 
him in no less degree, but in even far greater degree. 
The human family has passed through two thou- 
sand years of unfoldment since his day on earth 
and has worked out many things unsolved in his 
time. The age-long struggle of the human race is 
for freedom. For this men have fought, suffered, 
prayed, worked and died. Only as we possess this 
supreme thing does life itself seem worth while. 
With nothing less is it possible for man to be con- 
tent, for the pressure of a free God willing the 
freedom of His children is upon him, and nothing 
can content man that does not content God. There 
being but one Mind it is God's content in which man 
must rest. 

We read of the miracles (wonder works) of the 
New Testament and we see evidences of a Power 
and Mind greater than that which we have known 
as human power and mind. Jesus walked on the 
water; took money out of the mouth of a fish; fed 
a multitude of people miraculously ; stilled the storms 
at sea; healed diseases supposed to be incurable; 
raised the dead; and escaped the mob at the very 
edge of the precipice. He voluntarily laid down 
his life in the crucifixion and raised himself from 
the tomb; he appeared many times to his disciples 
after his death, passed through closed doors. He 
abolished materiality, time and space, through spir- 
itual discernment into the verities of Mind. 

These remarkable demonstrations of Mind be- 



42 TRUTH AND LIFE 

yond the comprehension of those who have been 
merely born of woman, he claimed were the result of 
being born again of Spirit, and of "repenting" (re- 
thinking) his powers from the spiritual basis. This 
is not the process of ratiocination which we call 
thinking, but the pure knowing which we gain when 
we have left the processes of human reasoning and 
accepted the decisions of Spirit, permitting the Mind 
to be in us "which was also in Christ Jesus." This 
one Mind does not think as we understand the term, 
but knows all things with an eternally perfect know- 
ing, and education in principles is to the end that 
we know its Truths. 

Spiritual education consists in the knowledge of 
fundamental principles. The universe can be the 
result of One Power alone, otherwise it could not 
be a universe. "The Father and I are One," is not 
the scintillating pyrotechnics of an orator, but the 
basic statement of the principle, that man cannot 
be disconnected from his Source, that he can have 
no good that is not in that source, that God is in- 
terested in His children, their welfare being as near 
and dear as His own, for they are His own ex- 
pression. 

Freedom Through Knowledge of Truth, — Man 
has been created free and God knows that he is free 
always. It is not enough, however, to be free ; we 
must know that we are free if we are to have the 
benefit of that freedom. We may be in an unlocked 
room through a lifetime and if we believe the door 
to be locked we remain prisoners. Lack of free- 
dom then is merely lack of knowledge of being free ; 
it is only through our individual knowledge of 



PRINCIPAL AND PRINCIPLE 43 

Truth that we become free in very fact as we are 
eternally in Spirit. "If the Son shall make you free 
then are ye free indeed." No one can assist the 
struggling butterfly from the cocoon; its own in- 
herent ability exercised is its resurrection. We set 
ourselves free by discerning the principle of man, 
who because he has his being in Mind is, as he is 
known to Mind, spiritually perfect. We are dis- 
covering that there are no locked doors in the uni- 
verse; all open as we approach them in confidence 
of our right as the Son to go through. 

In sense beliefs man suffers from auto-hypnotism 
and auto-suggestion. Spiritual healing and forgive- 
ness of sin are de-hypnotization of man and set him 
free. Nothing binds man but sin, and sin is to think 
outside of the principles of Mind. As all discord 
is outside of music and all error outside of mathe- 
matics so is all sin outside of Mind. The Principal 
thinks His universe, and nothing short of thinking 
as He thinks is freedom, and to think as He thinks 
is to think His Principles. That man should set 
himself free by conscious knowledge of the Truth is 
the purpose of that Wisdom which knows that only 
what we work for do we fully appreciate, under- 
stand and enjoy. 

It is essential to know the meaning of the word 
freedom. The belief that we are isolated fragments 
and can do as we individually please is the ignorance 
of materialism, not the freedom of Spirit. He who 
believes that he can think a private thought or com- 
mit a private act is unaware of the unity and proc- 
esses of life. There is positively no such thing as 
a private thought or act; every thing that we think 



44 TRUTH AND LIFE 

and do rushes out into public view and "who runs 
may read." Perceiving this profound truth, Con- 
fucius fearfully cried, **How can a man be con- 
cealed?'* Several centuries later the impossibility 
of concealment was disclosed by the Christian reve- 
lation. "For there is nothing covered that shall not 
be revealed ; neither hid which shall not be known. 
Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in the ear in 
closets shall be proclaimed from the housetops." 

The Inner Light, — Our private thoughts and acts 
scream themselves back upon us, and our only 
escape from the distortions and perversions of wrong 
thinking is to learn to think according to the prin- 
ciples of Truth. Then we rejoice in truer interpre- 
tations of the invisible beauty and perfection of 
eternal Reality. As our insight becomes clearer the 
interpretations will be more and more representa- 
tive of the divine model, until the perfect "like- 
ness" of the "Image" is attained. No man can hide 
himself ; he belongs to the public, and for the wel- 
fare of the individual and the race, the command 
is laid upon him to "Preach the Gospel, heal the 
sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead." Nothing 
in the spiritual world is endangered by our unfaith- 
fulness; but the welfare and happiness of mankind 
is dependent upon our clear knowledge of Truth 
and our definite ability to demonstrate its perfection, 
releasing the human family from the errors which 
hold it bound. 

To judge by appearances is to fall into sense 
beliefs; "righteous judgment" comes from an in- 
sight into principles. This is the resurrection into 
the Kingdom of God. Outsight must be constantly 



PRII^CIPAL AND PRINCIPLE 45 

corrected by insight into the perfection of the in- 
visible Kingdom, as the artist defers to his model. 
There is no other way of salvation for the race ex- 
cept education in spiritual principles. Freedom is 
attained when, through recognition of eternal Truth, 
Spiritual Reality is released into consciousness. 
Man can never fall, but he who does not know God 
cannot intelligently reveal Him whose Image he is. 
The fall and rise of man are merely symbolic of the 
revelation of man to himself; first perceiving him- 
self imperfectly, he later through revelation of 
Truth, sees the vision of the Son. As God's perfect 
idea, man is eternally and immutably held in the 
absolute perfection of Spirit. Infinite Mind can 
never change its perfect concept of man regardless 
of the ignorance and sin which obscures man's vision 
of himself. 

Plato tells us of a winged race of men that once 
existed on the earth. Spiritually man has never 
been without wings, for being an eternal citizen of 
Heaven, he has the inherent ability to rise on the 
wings of Truth and Love to the consciousness of 
his estate. Man has never been elsewhere than in 
Heaven; knowledge of this fact is essential to the 
attainment of actual freedom. "No man hath as- 
cended up to Heaven, but he that came down from 
Heaven, even the Son of Man which is in Heaven." 
Materialism holds us in the bondage of ignorance. 
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in 
ourselves that we are underlings." Slavery inheres 
in material ignorance because we do not recognize 
the dynamic power of Truth to set us free. 

The universe is dynamic and it responds to the 



46 TRUTH AND LIFE 

Master who speaks its language. If we do not 
comprehend the dynamics of principles, we are 
static which is death in a universe whose law is 
movement and growth. Music is everywhere, but 
it responds to us only as we consciously apply its 
principles. Spirit is everywhere; "He that keepeth 
Israel, shall neither slumber nor sleep," and He is 
responsive to us always as we speak to Him in terms 
of spiritual principles. 

When we love Truth so much that we reject the 
boastful knowledge of materialism, we know that 
we must unknow much that we have believed to be 
true. Materialism is the tomb of ignorance; and 
the stone of our sepulchre can be moved only by 
inherent knowledge of the power of Life. God is 
life, and life is power. As children of Life, we 
must learn to speak in terms of the living universe, 
assume our responsibilities and fulfil them. 

The Privilege of Right Seeing, — Recognizing our 
birthright we clear the mists of materialism from 
our own eyes, and thus aid our fellow man to do 
the same for himself. The ignorant shirker is 
bound in the prison of his own ignorance and self- 
ishness. He who would be free must have the 
courage to assume his part of the world's redemp- 
tive work. No man gets more out of life than he 
puts into it; the evolution of consciousness is the 
self-activity of man functioning through the life 
of the race. If Jesus received more than any other 
member of the human family it is because he put 
more into his life and work than any other. God 
dignifies humanity through His confidence that it 
has the ability to discover principles, and the power 



PRINCIPAL AND PRINCIPLE 47 

to work out its own salvation. He knows we have 
this intelligence and power, because He has given 
them to us. By taking hold of our privileges and 
bravely doing the Will, we look out gladly and hope- 
fully upon the human race, with its unsettled con- 
ditions and gigantic problems, and reverently up to 
God Who trusts us with the task of seeing and 
utilizing His power in the solution. 

No man can fulfil his obligation to his fellow man 
until he sees him as the Image of God. This is the 
real of every man. To see him in any other way 
than this' injures him. "Henceforth," says Paul, "I 
see no man after the flesh, but after Christ." The 
Golden Rule demands the perception of God's Ideal 
of Himself in every member of the race, for we ex- 
press our idea of man. This is the right thinking 
that casts out the devils of wrong thinking. It is the 
thinking that cleanses the leper and raises the dead. 
We help ourselves and our loved ones only as we 
see this is the Truth of the race. All thought is 
action, and every thought aflfects for good or for 
evil the racial consciousness. "Verily I say unto 
you, whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound in 
Heaven; and whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be 
loosed in Heaven." 

We have all progressed far enough in moral train- 
ing to be made very uncomfortable and indignant 
when we see corporal punishment meted out to any 
one, it matters not how we may persuade ourselves 
that it is deserved. We have abolished stocks and 
whipping posts. We shudder when we read of them 
in history, and we are grateful to think that we live 
in a more enlightened age. Fools and blind are we, 



48 TRUTH AND LIFE 

if we do not know that we need not fear him who 
can merely injure the body; for he who holds his 
body in spiritual consciousness is immune; he can- 
not be injured. Nothing that can be done to the 
body is comparable to what can be done to the con- 
sciousness, and so long as we think untrue thoughts 
we injure the very mainspring of the lives of others. 

The martyrs of bodily punishment have often 
risen to supreme heights of consciousness, and were 
therefore benefited, not injured, by it. Those whom 
we bind on earth by ignorant thought are the dis- 
eased, insane, criminal, inefficient and poor. It is 
not stone walls which make a prison, but the con- 
viction of sin is the prison of hell. John Bunyan 
wrote an immortal book behind prison walls, and 
Madame Guyon sang her sweetest songs there. A 
tomb could not shut Jesus in, nor could prison walls 
hold Paul and Silas; but the insane asylums, pris- 
ons, and hospitals of the world are filled because 
the race is not yet Christian enough to think in life's 
principles. 

When we arrive at the Great Divide, the discern- 
ment between that which is spiritual and that which 
is material, we awake from the hypnotic sleep of 
sense and see the eternal Realities of Soul. We then 
find that our only work is faithfully to represent 
Reality. We have attained the spiritual insight and 
know that we are here for the purpose of revealing 
and imparting life. "I am come that they might 
have life and that they might have it more abun- 
dantly." God reveals Himself in each of us in a 
new way, so that when we open the consciousness to 



PRINCIPAL AND PRINCIPLE 49 

God, it enables Him to reveal His eternal Will 
through us. 

When we have obtained the gift of sight we find 
ourselves compelled to preach the Good News. We 
cannot keep still about it. To the inward eye of 
faith no condition is hopeless. We can open the 
doors that the sinner be freed by the all-powerful 
word of Truth, and with a blessing tell him to "go, 
sin no more.'' Do this silently if it seem inexpedient 
to do it otherwise. No man has delivered his soul 
from its obligation to another until he has done all 
in his power to aid him. He who in this way fulfils 
the law, looks the whole world in the face, for he 
owes no man. Aye, more, the man who has done 
his part dares to look up to God and demand the 
answers to his questions and the solutions of his 
problems. The commendation of God was upon 
Job as he did this, and Job received double for all 
that he had lost. 

"He who dares assert the I, 
May calmly wait, while hurrying fate 
Meets his demand with sure supply." 

This assertion is the conviction of our sonship. 

The gift of God is eternal life. All good, all vir- 
tue, all happiness, all substance, all companionship 
are the gifts of God ; yet we have these gifts only as 
we fulfil the conditions. God has stipulations with 
regard to His blessings with which we must com- 
ply. We are compelled to learn how to take them. 
This is the divine love of a Father who would have 
His Son equal in consciousness to Himself to be 
worthy of his great inheritance. There is abso- 



50 TRUTH AND LIFE 

lutely no joy comparable to that which we experi- 
ence through our own competence. No man who 
has worked out his own education and fortune would 
exchange with the man born with the proverbial 
silver spoon. God works and the Master Crafts- 
man well knows that His greatest joy is to watch 
the growth of His own Creation. Would He be to 
us the Father He is were He to deny us this joy 
and privilege? 

The Unity of the Race. — The two great com- 
mandments or principles in the fulfillment of which 
alone we are free, are: "Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 
and with all thy mind.'' This is the first and great 
commandment, and the second is like unto it : "Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The universe 
being one can have no diverse interests. The wel- 
fare of the unit is inextricably bound up in the wel- 
fare of the race. "What is good for the hive is good 
for the bee." So back of every thought and act the 
question to be put to one's self is, "Is this good for 
the race?" If it is, then do it with the whole heart ; 
if it is not, it is to be shunned as something which 
would menace the individual life. 

He who would divorce the Principle from the 
Principal will do no great work. It is simple to 
learn the principle for self betterment; this but 
makes the technician. Of itself it makes life but a 
meaningless workshop. The principle is but a means 
of expressing God, and as a means to this end 
it makes the conquest of these means the stimulating 
tonic of spiritual education. Education in spiritual 
principles is the preparation we make in order to 



PRINCIPAL AND PRINCIPLE 51 

become efficient co-workers with Him, and thus to 
carve out our magnificent destiny from His Pur- 
pose. Divine inspiration is felt only by those who 
love and who know that they are beloved. We will 
and can escape many miseries and inefficiencies 
through a perfunctory application of the principle, 
but he who would come forth in freedom and in 
power must work always for the approval of the 
Father; work to hear the Voice say, "This is my 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 

The greatest thing anyone can do for the race is 
to bring his own life to fruition. It is this which 
has earned for Jesus the title, "Saviour." He saved 
himself and so has given us the concrete method by 
which we are all to be saved. Salvation has had a 
vague, indefinite meaning because we have thought 
it referred to another life. It means safety, sound- 
ness. It is immunity from evil here and now. It 
is spiritual efficiency and the ability to meet defi- 
nitely life's problems with a conviction of mastery. 
It is the revelation of the power of God through 
the consciousness of man. It is the completion of 
the unit with the consciousness of the Universal. 
It is the revelation of the power of God through the 
consciousness of the Universal. It is the revelation 
of the power of Gk)d through the consciousness of 
man. It is that condition which results when the 
Father works unimpeded through the consciousness 
of the Son. 

Freedom Through Love. — It is from the eminence 
which made Abou Ben Adhem great that we enter 
into the clear seeing which is freedom. The lovers 
are the only free men, for they have lost their 



52 TRUTH AND LIFE 

cramped beliefs of themselves and found themselves 
in the free Mind of the Universe. The time-server 
whose thought is self-centered is a prisoner, his life 
having no outlet. That man is free who asks only 
for the privilege of serving and giving his life whole- 
heartedly to the task of making the world a better 
place to live in, because he lets the light through his 
consciousness from the spiritual world. Christian- 
ity shifts the center of thought from self to God and 
looses the life in service to others. This change in 
the inner life is as radical as that which took place 
when the race perceived that the sun was the center 
of the solar system, and the earth revolved around 
the sun. 

Real religion and undefiled is to love God and 
man. This can be done only as we rise out of the 
night of sense into the light of Soul and Spirit. 
Life becomes infinitely worth while as we discern. 
God, and the work we must do in order to reveal 
His Character and Nature. Our lives then become 
purposeful and meaningful; we lose pauperizing 
self-pity, and make every event the tide in our 
affairs that leads on to fortune. The days are all 
too short for what we find to do, every hour is filled 
with worth-while occupation bestowing its blessing 
upon us as we leave a benediction in our wake. 

He who opens his heart in love and faith will see, 
and "the eye once bared forever sees." Then, either 
in the home or the workshop, out on the highway 
or in the social gathering, there comes to us the 
opportunity to apply the principles which sets free 
the hidden light and glories of the invisible. Man 
is a candle in God's consciousness when he knows 



PRINCIPAL AND PRINCIPLE 53 

Truth. One light can kindle many others and thus 
throw beams afari 

Attaining and Resting, — Two reclining figures 
shown at the Panama-Pacific Exposition were well 
worth study. One was called "Upstream," and the 
other "Downstream." Art does not preach to us, 
but it compels us to see and do. Its lessons are 
impressions, and preceding any expression there 
must be impression. In Upstream, every muscle 
was tense, the eyes peering ahead through the dis- 
tance to the goal. The co-ordination of the head, 
shoulders and limbs revealed the unity of concen- 
trated effort to reach a certain destination. Yet 
the strain was not painful, it was merely the result 
of something so purposeful that all the attention 
was focused to the one end of reaching the head of 
the stream. 

Downstream had committed herself to the cur=- 
rent. Perfect confidence, that no more was re- 
quired of her than to trust the stream, was ex- 
pressed in the whole attitude of the buoyant body. 
She had abandoned herself to the water, knew Love 
was her pilot, and she was being carried out to 
the great somewhere she desired to reach. Nothing 
about the purposeful body suggested aimless drift- 
ing ; everything expressed the surety of being carried 
on the bosom of the current out in the middle of 
the stream where the safe sailing was to her home 
port. The absolute joy of the beloved one who has 
given herself without reservation to her lover was 
apparent in the rapt expression and clothed her about 
as an atmosphere. 

Upstream is the effort we make to learn and 



54 TRUTH AND LIFE 

apply the principles of life. We find ourselves in 
the broad drift of mortal thought, and if we let 
ourselves go downstream before we have reached the 
head waters we shall be carried into swirling eddies 
or wrecked upon the rocks on either side. Danger 
lurks everywhere, drifting along in mortal thought, 
and we find ourselves at last stranded, lost in hope- 
less inefficiency and materialism. 

There is no safe landing nor home port to be 
made save as we start with the current from the 
head of the stream. There is no way of reaching 
any way-station save as we start with the Principal 
and work out His Principles. The first thing to 
know about anything is its principle ; when we have 
that we are in possession of the thing itself, and not 
before. The principle of anything is the origin of 
it, and is the inherent constituent which is the es- 
sence, or substance composing it. Man, his body, 
supply and work are all hid in Principle, the original 
thought of God to which we must have constant 
recurrence, until we no longer live, but Christ liveth 
in us. 

A principle is that element which, when compre- 
hended and applied, reveals the original thing. A 
principle in consciousness is absolute concentration 
and conservation in thought. When we perceive 
principles we are unable to think otherwise than the 
way things are, and this is the Truth that frees. 
Those principles which we establish in conscious- 
ness by immutable law must be expressed in body 
and conditions. We pray availingly with principles 
in consciousness, and this is the only prayer that can 



PRINCIPAL AND PRINCIPLE 55 

avail in a universe which is composed of Principles, 
that is, of God's thoughts. 

The Father and the Son. — ^When we discern that 
man is neither creative nor inventive, but a dis- 
coverer and an interpreter, we have a clue to the 
work that the Universe demands that we do — "work 
out your own salvation/' Every faculty, every 
power, every virtue man has, is a perfect thought 
in the Consciousness of the Infinite. Not one of 
them can develop, deteriorate or ever be lost. When 
we learn that all we can do is to become conscious 
of the perfection of our faculties, because they are 
all inherencies of Divine" Mind, it can then be said 
that we possess them in Truth. Man is a conscious- 
ness of the faculties, powers and virtues of the 
Creator. The Father shines His Perfection upon 
man. His child, and man reflects these back upon 
his Father, in direct proportion to his perception of 
them. The principle of every faculty is the thought 
of Mind concerning it. These faculties are per- 
fected to our consciousness as we locate them in 
God. When we know our powers are in Infinite 
Mind, we cease to be under the sway of the sub- 
conscious beliefs and thus destroy their limitation. 
Through spiritual perception we discern the facul- 
ties and powers inherent in the Principle of man and 
thus establish them in consciousness. 

It is a law of physics that every action has its 
equal and contrary reaction. Gaining the knowl- 
edge of principles is the upstream work of action; 
the reaction is downstream. We can never come 
downstream from a farther distance than we have 
gone up. It matters not what we study, whether it 



56 TRUTH AND LIFE 

be a science, an art or a craft, at first all of the at- 
tention must be focused upon it. Principles must 
be carefully and intelligently comprehended, so that 
our thought always conforms to them. Loose think- 
ing is as disastrous as live wires carelessly handled ; 
all the troubles in the world come from it. 

When we have mastered the principles of life we 
are in the divine order of the Kingdom of God. 
"Order is Heaven's first law," and no one can be 
in Truth who is not in that law. With principles 
firmly established in consciousness we feel the sus- 
taining Infinite holding us within Himself. In ease 
and confidence we work out conditions through the 
principles we have mastered, and thus we stand in 
the way of new revelation. The light grows brighter 
and we feel the conviction of limitless possibilities 
with principles in consciousness. We go into the 
mind of God for principles, we come out into ex- 
pression over them and find as the great Way- 
Shower so positively assures us, that we shall "go in 
and out and find pasture." 

Inspiration is the result of our knowledge of 
Spiritual Reality. To him who has incorporated 
principles, life is easy and its burden light. He 
feels himself then greater than anything that comes 
against him, and he experiences a keen sense of joy 
in the consciousness of this power. Jesus realized 
this when the man born blind came to him for heal- 
ing. It was his opportunity to reveal the power of 
God. The more we use power the more conscious 
we are of power. Power is not greater because 
Jesus stood in it, nor is it less because you and I 
stand in it. Power is, and he who believes in 



PRINCIPAL AND PRINCIPLE 57 

Omnipotence does, to the extent of this belief, work 
easily in it. As a young high school student said, 
with lighted face, "There are no problems when you 
understand principles." 

All education is the perception of principles, a 
series of opening the eyes, Columbus opened his 
eyes and perceived the shape of the earth ; Newton 
opened his eyes and perceived the law of gravita- 
tion; Copernicus opened his eyes and perceived the 
relative position of the sun and planets; Jesus per- 
ceived the spirituality of the universe and of man. 
Every one is free to the extent that he perceives the 
spiritual principle of man. Freedom is the expres- 
sion of life through principles. 

Accomplishment is natural and easy when we 
know principles. We are then yoked with Om- 
nipotence. The short and easy way is to identify 
one's self with Mind which knows all things and in 
which is the idea and substance of all things. We 
thus "reach the journey's end at every step." 
Eliminate every belief which does not emanate from 
Mind. This is the way to enable Mind to possess 
us, and it is in that possession alone that we actually 
find the Way. Just as the boat that Jesus boarded 
was immediately at the shore, so we find ourselves 
at the shore of Freedom, spiritual expression, when 
we have right ideas. 

The universe is a Divine Theocracy, in which 
there are no power stations nor middle men on the 
way. Each receives his own commission from the 
Principal and each must start from the Head of the 
Stream; for the new work and the new name are 
given to each individually, in the secret trysting 



58 TRUTH AND LIFE 

place of Father and child, at the Head of the Stream. 
From the Principal, which holds the idea of each 
individual unit, each starts outward on the wings 
of faith in his own individual genius. In every 
one, discovered or undiscovered, is an ideal which 
when found confers a benediction upon himself 'and 
the race. 

A Divine Theocracy can be nothing but a Divine 
Democracy, and a "government by the people and 
for the people,*' can only be established on the 
basis of the equality of man because of the unity 
and integrity of the universe. The Golden 'Rule is 
the natural impulse in the hearts of men when they 
discern the spirituality of the race. It is he -only 
who is faithful unto death (of the mortal miscon- 
ception) that receives the Crown of Life — clear 
discernment of the Principal and the Principle. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 

For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and 
righteous men have desired to see those things which ye 
see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things 
which ye hear, and have not heard them. — Luke 10:24. 

Kingdom Centric, — Artists point out that to get 
the idea of a picture one must find the center, and 
from this see the relationship of all the objects in the 
picture to it, for every object in the picture is the 
elucidation of that center. In music we must catch 
the theme or motif in order to enter into it compre- 
hendingly and sympathetically. We are told that 
the best preacher has but one sermon, the best author 
but one subject. Certainly this is true of the Great 
Teacher for we find the Gospel story centered in his 
one theme, "The Kingdom of God" or "The King- 
dom of Heaven.'' In a multiplicity of ways and 
with a wealth of illustration he endeavors to compel 
this into the consciousness of his people. 

The "Kingdom'' was, to Jesus, the only Reality. 
Everything that was not of it was "a lie," and had 
no Truth in it. Seeing this Kingdom so clearly 
himself, Jesus "marveled" that others could not 
perceive it also. Eternal Life, he taught, was the 
result of being aware of the Kingdom, and, by pre- 
cept, example, elucidation, demonstration, and in- 

59 



6o TRUTH AND LIFE 

ducement, he endeavored to lift the consciousness 
of men to that life. This Reality fills all space; 
therefore it cannot be "Lo here or lo there/' for 
that which fills all is locationless to human measure- 
ment. That which constitutes the beauty, integrity, 
and perfection of the Kingdom is Spirit, and only he 
who worships in Spirit and in Truth can discover 
this great universal Realm. All perceivable things 
have value only because of their relationship to the 
Kingdom. 

The Kingdom of Heaven, — The Kingdom of 
Heaven in its objective sense is the Reality of the 
universe. It is the absolutely perfect spiritual crea- 
tion in the infinitely aware consciousness of God. 
It is guarded from all intrusion by the vigilance of 
Him who '"slumbers not nor sleeps" in the loving 
watch He keeps over it. It is radiant life, inde- 
structibly established. Its fullness renders any 
vacuum or imperfection impossible. Its peace and 
harmony are the result of everything being complete 
in itself, for here is the Real of everything, the God 
Idea of it. The all-pervading love is its own con- 
sciousness of unity; for, being All, no one and no 
thing can be outside its beneficence, or can possibly 
be in opposition or alien to it. 

The Kingdom of Heaven in its subjective sense is 
what has been induced into our consciousness by 
perception and demonstration from the conscious- 
ness of God. The Kingdom of Heaven is in this 
sense, what we are aware of in the manner that God 
is aware of it. Heaven is not a place to which we go 
when we die, but it comes to us as we die to mortal 
unbelief and perceive the luminous Creation in which 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 6i 

we live, move and have our being. Spiritual edu- 
cation is to become conscious with the conscious- 
ness of God. It is to leave human misconception 
and 

"Make ready the way of the Lord, 
Make His paths straight." 

Spiritual education and efficiency is the ability to 
permit Mind its unlimited expression through us, 
through the removal of limitation and a conscious 
knowledge of its potency. 

Until we cease to think from a material basis we 
cannot think in "Spirit and in Truth.'* Thinking 
correctly is praying as taught by the Master. All 
true thinking is creative in the sense that it is in- 
terpretative of Reality. The tremendous emphasis 
which Jesus laid upon the Kingdom as a present 
Reality compels us to realize that his Gospel is 
"Kingdom centric." To him the Kingdom is a high 
tower immediate and available to which to flee from 
all the ills which menace and restrict life. 

Spirit is an all-pervading atmosphere and, as we 
become aware of it, we are changed. It is an utter 
impossibility to be aware of this realm and not be 
renewed. We cannot, by any kind of mental gym- 
nastics, be conscious of a spiritual and a "materiar* 
realm at the same time ; we cannot see unity and re- 
tain a belief in separation. We are loosened from 
the stupid inertia of earth limitations and quickened 
from indolence to industry, from incompetence to 
competence, from oppression of material bondage 
to spiritual freedom, as we become aware of the 
Kingdom. 



62 TRUTH AND LIFE 

The New Covenant, — After the resurrection the 
disciples expected the immediate return of their 
Master. They had not perceived the significance 
of the words, "It is expedient for you that I go 
away." Every one is as indolent as his vision per- 
mits him to be, and if some one possessing the 
power of Jesus should remain and do our task, the 
accomplishment of which enables us each to become 
an efficient co-worker with God, we should not be 
compelled to work out our own salvation. How- 
ever, as soon as we do perceive the Kingdom, "A 
spark disturbs our clod," and work we must under 
its impulsion. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is God's gift to man, but 
even though it be a gift we must learn how to re- 
ceive it. We must perceive in the first place what 
it is that God has willed to us. The New Testa- 
ment is a record of God's Will to His children. It 
is the new insight into the Eternal Will of God for 
man. Certain conditions must be fulfilled in order 
to gain the inheritance which has been bequeathed 
us. Discovering the Kingdom and what it is, we 
learn how to fulfil the conditions. The Kingdom of 
Heaven is a condition of harmony, perfection, and 
power which is the God idea of life. He wills that 
His children have this condition in order that they 
have His joy, fulness, and completion. 

We must pay a price for all things of worth. 
This price must be in the terms prevailing in the 
realm where we purchase. Material things we buy 
with coin, exchange or labor, but spiritual things are 
not so obtained. Money may buy a house but it can 
never purchase a home. Self-discipline, self-sacri- 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 63 

fice, a love so deep, pure and true that our lives are 
lost and then regained, are the spiritual terms for 
a home. Other price than lesson-money is required 
to make musicians and artists. To gain the King- 
dom there must be the discipline which clears the 
discords of sense, then the accurate education in 
the perception of principles, and the sensitiveness 
which feels spiritual harmonies. In this way only 
can we bring the Kingdom of God to consciousness 
and become actual citizens of the Kingdom imbued 
with its power. 

The Millennial Dawn, — The Kingdom of Heaven 
is like unto a man seeking goodly pearls ; and having 
found one of great price, he sells all that he has 
and buys it. Every vagrant thought, sensuous 
pleasure, and selfish desire must be discarded. No 
love, no work, no joy but that which is spiritual 
must remain with us. So long as we cling to any 
sensuous pleasure or thought we are just so much 
out of the Kingdom of real love, joy, and accom- 
plishment. The Kingdom comes only on condition 
of absolute possession. 

A Kingdom is a government which acknowledges 
a ruler ; the Kingdom of Heaven is absolutely ruled 
by its King. Only those who consciously regulate 
their lives by Truth can be citizens of this Kingdom. 
Intelligent comprehension of its laws; loyalty to 
the King ; obedience to His commands — not from an 
automatic serfdom but with the joyful acquiescence 
of the son and heir — individual responsibility for the 
welfare of its other citizens ; these constitute the re- 
quirements of citizenship in the Kingdom. One 
can be neither a mathematician nor a musician who 



64 TRUTH AND LIFE 

is not absolutely governed by principles, and he who 
would have the benefits of Heaven must be out from 
under material misconception and be completely gov- 
erned by spiritual principles. 

Today is the dawn of the Millennium. It is an 
age when we are throwing off the shackles of matter 
through perceiving spiritual Reality. We are sun- 
dering the bonds of selfishness and freeing our lives 
gladly in service. We are rending the narrow con- 
fines of nationalism and welding the nations into 
universal brotherhood. Again are we perceiving 
through the rent in the veil of the Temple the 
mysteries of the Kingdom. In co-operation only 
can the welfare of the races be found. The belief 
in separation from God and fellow man has brought 
the suffering of the human race. In unity only is 
strength, and united to God and man we draw nigh 
to the consciousness of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

As never before since the days of early Christian- 
ity we are talking together of the deep things of the 
Spirit, relating our spiritual experiences to those 
who comprehend and in turn tell us "the great 
things God hath done for them." Spiritual ex- 
periences seem the normal topic for conversation. 
Cosmic visions, healings, demonstrations of power, 
progress in every line, the result of the new insight 
which the race is receiving, these are social themes 
as never before. Things are now done through 
knowledge of spiritual law which would have been 
thought miracles a generation ago, but are now seen 
to be the inevitable result of applied principles. 

Discovering the Kingdom. — Revelation is derived 
from a Latin word meaning *'to draw back the veil." 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 65 

The purpose of Christianity is to free the holden 
eye that we may see the glories of the Within. 
He who has risen above the fog-Hne of human 
beh'ef into the eternal sunshine of pure knowing, 
is no more disturbed by the distortions produced 
by human thought than the defective negative of 
some well-known subject disturbs the photographer. 
If the negative is untrue he knows it has not rep- 
resented the subject. If one perceives spiritual 
creation he knows that an inharmonious or ma- 
terialistic representation is never correct. God is 
Spirit and only the spiritual can represent Spirit. 
The mental camera has been defective if the sub- 
ject has not been truly revealed, and not creation 
itself. 

Holding in vision perfect creation, Jesus cor- 
rected the portrait by the living face of eternal 
Reality. The Kingdom of God is the model to 
which all thought must conform. Jesus adjusted 
the camera in the mentality of the sinner and the 
sick, restoring spiritual vision, thereby forgiving the 
sin and healing the disease. Sin is only forgiven 
as we correct the error and forsake it; disease is 
healed by destroying the material unbelief which 
underlies it. Those who possess the "immaculate 
perception," as Jean Parke calls it, automatically 
heal, for healing is the natural consequence of this 
revelation. 

Jesus and the Natural World, — Every natural 
thing was to Jesus symbolic of the spiritual world. 
His homely pictures of familiar things make him 
the supreme teacher of all time. From the Reality 
before his vision, he drew his delineations with the 



66 TRUTH AND LIFE 

skill of the artist and language of the poet. "Grod 
is the perfect poet and in His Person acts His own 
creations," was the insight from which illustration 
and parable were drawn and his healing work ac- 
complished. He belongs to no age because he is of 
all time. He belongs to no country because He 
uses only that which is the common property of all 
countries. Men's differences are all artificial; their 
unities are permanent and universal. There being 
one common Mind, differences disappear as we rise 
into it. 

The clouds in the sky ; the wheat and the tares ; the 
merchant and the pearls; the woman sweeping the 
floor; the birds of the air and the domestic fowl; 
the men plowing; the laborers of the vineyard; 
sowing and reaping; the outgoing traveler and the 
returning pilgrim; the flowers and the trees, all 
become illustrations of spiritual values as he inter- 
prets them. All was grist that came to his mill, 
and the parallel between the natural and the spiritual 
makes a wholesomeness and sanity utterly lacking 
to the ultra transcendentalists who do not perceive 
the Cosmic Purpose in the education of man. 

Earth was to Jesus a mountain from which he 
could ascend to Heaven, a necessary grade pre- 
liminary to the larger life of the Spirit. No one can 
side-step it, its problems must all be solved through 
perception of spiritual laws. Earth life is simply 
the portal of Heaven and he who would arrive at 
the higher mysteries and meanings must do it in 
vision. Lover and appreciator of the natural world, 
as Jesus was, he still pointed with unwavering per- 
sistency to the inner realm which he called the 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 67 

Kingdom of Heaven. A spiritual law can be applied 
to and correct every ill known to the race. Con- 
ditions which to finite belief seem unyielding and 
are regarded as laws are transcended as we compre- 
hend spiritual law. 

Is it a "law'' that fire will burn our bodies ? We 
are coming to perceive that spiritualized man may 
stand in it and be immune. Is it a "law'' that man 
cannot walk on water as he can on land? Jesus 
walked upon it in safety, and Peter also while his 
faith upheld him. Is gravitation a "law"? Very 
recently a scientist told one of the authors, "I doubt 
its permanency," and another famous scientist has 
declared of it that it is a "rough approximation." 
The ascension of Jesus contradicts it as being real 
at any time to spiritual discernment. Spiritual man 
recognizes levitation through which God holds up 
His Creation in indestructible security as the only 
law. There is but one law and that is spiritual be- 
cause the universe is always spiritual regardless of 
how it seems to finite sense. So-called material laws 
are all mortal limitations. 

The Power of Spiritual Consciousness, — Keeping 
in vision the Kingdom of Heaven as the only basis 
for thought and act, we meet each day's work with 
a conviction of power. So long as we remain with 
the Vision we cannot fail. It enables us to destroy 
human limitation by refusing to accept it, and en- 
ables us to make a true re-creation of Reality. 
"Greater is he that ruleth his own spirit than he 
that taketh a city." There is no way by which in- 
efficient human thought may be quieted but by per- 
sistent effort to gain true thought. No one can 



68 TRUTH AND LIFE 

think right and wrong at the same time ; one ceases 
as the other enters. By closing the door on the 
under side to material doubts, fears and limitations, 
and opening it on the upper side wide to the revela- 
tions of Divine Mind we gain dominion over thought. 

Mind is God and to be in it we must think in its 
principles. The eternal speech of God to man is 
through principles which man learns in order to be 
free. According to the allegory man was placed in 
the Garden to ''dress and keep it.'* He has been 
placed in Mind to keep it pure and true, to reject 
the encroachments of untrue and unprofitable think- 
ing, and to acquire that knowledge which enables 
him to interpret the Kingdom of Wholeness. 

The entire visible universe, with its elements of 
air, water, fire and earth, is subject to man as he 
governs his thought. All the limitations of finite 
sense are destroyed as we comprehend spiritual law, 
and the things feared in human immaturity rendered 
null and void. Nothing in Hfe is injurious to man; 
all is for his benefit. Truth will give man the mas- 
tery over all earth conditions. No man is free so 
long as he can drown in water, burn in fire or be 
buried in earth. His mastery must come through 
knowing the spirituality of the universe and the im- 
mortal security of spiritual man. It is useless to 
try to understand God through intellectual proc- 
esses, for "the natural man receiveth not the things 
of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto 
him." Revelation alone enables us to understand 
that "All power in Heaven and on earth hath been 
given unto me,'* an assertion made by him who 
claimed no private privilege but declared that all he 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 69 

accomplished could also be done by any other who 
obeyed the Will of the Father as he did. 

Cosmic glimpses are borne in upon us in moments 
of quiet relaxation, when we cease from the strain 
of human strife and permit them to come. These 
perceptions are growing more general and are con- 
fined to no race nor creed. Poets and thinkers of 
all civilized countries and centuries have been sensi- 
tive to the spiritual realm. There is a wideness 
about the revelations of God, that, like His Mercy, 
is as the wideness of the sea. He, the universal 
Father, is no respecter of persons, churches or 
countries. His love abides in its eternal integrity 
and perfection and he who would be of it must keep 
the universal vision and not fashion a new creed 
which would be but another limitation of Him who 
cannot be limited. 

Transformation Wrought by Understanding. — 
The Great Teacher is far more than an observant 
naturalist. There is also in his teachings an il- 
luminating knowledge of chemical transmutation. 
"The Kingdom of God is like leaven which a v/oman 
took and hid in three measures of meal, till all was 
leavened." The yeast changes the composition of 
meal so that it is another composition from that 
which it was before. And this is a true symbol of 
spiritual transmutation. Both authors have experi- 
enced this change. Neither would be on the earth 
plane had not this chemical transmutation occurred 
in consciousness and raised up the bodies which 
would otherwise have been laid down in death. 

We are "clothed upon, that mortality might be 
swallowed up of life." The consciousness of God 



70 TRUTH AND LIFE 

induces itself upon us as we wait upon Him, with 
humility and obedience. It is not our titanic human 
efforts which earn for us the Kingdom. It is the 
conviction of our divine sonship which inherits it. 
We do not actually possess the Kingdom, it rather 
possesses us. A child of the Kingdom knows him- 
self in the all-knowing Mind, and cannot think of 
himself in any other terms than those in which this 
Mind thinks of him. The only standard by which 
God can think and judge man is the criterion of His 
own perfection. He has never seen man otherwise 
than perfect, and thus the secret spur in each is 
for this supreme attainment. 

"Each thing chiefly desireth its own perfection, 
and in it quieteth every desire and for it is each 
thing desired. And this is the desire which maketh 
each delight seem insufficient, for in this life is no 
delight so great that it can satisfy the thirst of the 
soul, so that the desire I speak of shall not remain in 
his thoughts." The innate desire of man is this 
perfection, the Purpose of God for man is this per- 
fection, and we shall be satisfied only as we *'awake 
in His likeness." 

We have power only as we stand in Power, and 
this is in the Kingdom alone. Then the only way 
to power is in the advice of the Master, '*Seek ye 
first the Kingdom/' In the Kingdom all that we 
desire comes to pass, for our intelligence renders 
us incapable of desiring anything but the establish- 
ment of this Kingdom in the consciousness of all 
men. Under human belief we strive, struggle and 
labor for that which we receive as a gift after we 
have discovered it and complied with its conditions. 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 71 

We defraud and defeat ourselves by impotent yearn- 
ing, {hereby wasting the substance that would buy 
the bread. The immortal poet says, 

"We may outrun, 
By violent swiftness that which we run at 
And lose by overrunning." 

The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand. — "Why," 
we were asked recently, "have I never had home and 
love when I -have wanted them more than anything 
else all my life.'' "Because you have never believed 
that you had received them, and so never gave God 
the chance to give them to you,'* was the only pos- 
sible answer. The question revealed a condition of 
thought neither receptive nor creative. We do not 
take a hammer and pound into a camera the impres- 
sion that we wish to make on it. Spiritual gifts 
come to us in like manner for the mind of man is a 
sensitive camera which receives impressions from 
the spiritual world, by believing in the unseen 
Reality. All good awaits in the Kingdom our ac- 
ceptance of it. "Ask and ye shall receive, seek and 
ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." 

Back of all objects visible to sense, stands the 
Real in the Unseen. The natural object is but the 
outpost, the indication of the spiritual Reality. 
Those who are seeing past the three dimensional 
world have difficulty in finding expressions and ad- 
jectives able or fit to reveal the radiance and wonder 
of it. Not many are endowed with the magic pen 
of Paul of whom it was said, that he filled his 
words so full that they creaked and cracked under 
the burden placed upon them. However, he who 



y2 TRUTH AND LIFE 

sees the Kingdom must testify of it as best he may. 
They who serve Soul instead of body, Spirit instead 
of the world, find strands of the infinite glory woven 
into the woof and warp of their lives. The best 
testimony we can make for it is a definite spiritual 
efficiency, in the work we are doing to reveal it. 

Working in the Light. — ^Working in the light of 
the Vision we see the Purpose, and the task is easy 
as we come to see that the Spirit does our work, 
thinks our thoughts and is wholly responsible for 
our welfare. Man's only responsibility is to know 
the Truth and permit the Spirit to have the right 
of way, and work with it for the welfare of the 
race. No one sees the spot in nature quite so 
clearly as he who would transfer it to his canvas for 
the delight of others. No one hears the universal 
harmonies as he who would transpose it that others 
may hear too. Man is a spiritual artist working out 
his own salvation as he receives the Kingdom into 
consciousness, "The Father worketh hitherto and I 
work.*' We transcend time and space by work well 
done and ally ourselves with the true workers of 
every age. Work worthy of the best that we have 
in us lies all about us as we keep in vision the great 
model, the Kingdom of God. 

Creative work is compulsory as we gain the 
Vision. The secret springs of the individual genius 
in each are released by the great discovery. No 
one can be unhappy, discouraged or lonely if he has 
found his own life and his own work in Spirit. No 
work is real that is not joyously done. True work 
is neither drudgery nor labor, but the glad release- 
ment of ourselves into the task that confronts us. 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 73 

Heaven is never stagnation, but purposeful, directed 
action. We move in it in majestic rhythm from one 
climax to another in the infinite unfoldment of its 
glories through us. Man's work is a faithful re- 
vealing of spiritual creation. 

"For more is not reserved 
To man, with soul just nerved 
To act tomorrow what he learns today ; 
Here work enough to watch 
The Master work, and catch 
Hints of the proper craft. 
Tricks of the tool's true play." 

Working in the light of the Vision we find our- 
selves leaving the valleys where the little people live, 
the weaklings under material belief. We find our- 
selves on the road with the giants of spiritual enter- 
prise. We find the comradeship of true friends and 
helpers, those who are doing the worth-while things 
and who stimulate and inspire us to greater accom- 
plishment. Here on the road to the Great Some- 
where are real seers, real thinkers, real workers. 
Man must consort with his own kind, and brave 
men and women, each doing his part in the world's 
work, are always in advance movements. These 
workers are burdened with no piety, but power is 
the atmosphere in which they walk. Comparison 
with another's work is not courtesy in this com- 
pany, for each is recognized as original with inspira- 
tion direct from the Almighty. Neither creed, 
college nor ancestry is inquired into when we meet 
free men and women, for we all work and worship 
"in that fane most catholic which God hath planned," 
for the revelation of the Kingdom. 



74 TRUTH AND LIFE 

One who keeps the Kingdom in sight cannot fail ; 
success is compulsory. He succeeds for the same 
reason that his portrait is registered if he stands 
before the open shutter of the camera. When the 
conditions of the camera are fulfilled the portrait 
is the inevitable result. When we fulfil the con- 
ditions of the Kingdom of Heaven the undeviating 
results of its realities are recorded in our lives. 
True success is first, last and always inner. It is 
ability to see clearly, to think definitely, to create 
originally. Real success is measured only by faith- 
fulness to the great design. 

Right Identification, — The secret of attainment 
is never to identify one's self with that which 
changes. Garments are always transient and change 
with every milepost one passes. At every station one 
finds new garments, the Father meeting us with the 
ring, the robe and the shoes. He never tires of 
meeting His returning prodigal, and infinite is the 
variety of blessings He has at every milepost of the 
journey Inward. When one has the substance of 
the thing in consciousness, one gives no more 
thought to the outside, the semblance of the thing, 
than one does to one's shadow, for that follows the 
body — it can do no otherwise. When we know 
where we are going all nature is in league to aid 
and provide for us. 

We are substantial only as we reveal spiritual 
Realities. Character becomes permanent and stable 
only as we are allied to Infinity. Poise and balance 
are then in the mien and actions. External troubles 
or disasters never disturb those whose lives are cen- 
tered in the Kingdom, and they meet all conditions 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 75 

with a sense of mastery. Those who are of the 
Kingdom convey a sense of large reserve power 
as of those who are living well within their income, 
with the principle safely secure "where rust doth 
not corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal." 
Allied to Infinity something of its power and inex- 
haiistibleness must be conveyed to every passing 
wayfarer. 

We reveal the characteristics of God through our 
lives as the Kingdom of God comes into our con- 
sciousness. Character is defined as "a mark en- 
graved or inscribed, a seal, stamp or impression." 
Character is what we have engraved upon con- 
sciousness through ''seeing the invisible," which be- 
comes "invisibly visible" as we permit the love, in- 
telligence, competency, and beauty of it to illumine 
our way. The Kingdom of Heaven is a present 
Reality and this day may we be with Him in Para- 
dise, exiles on a foreign shore no more, but safe and 
whole in the Kingdom, which was, is, and evermore 
shall be. 



CHAPTER V 
THE PROBLEM OF EVIL. 

Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because 
ye cannot hear my words. Ye are of your father the 
devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was 
a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the 
Truth, because there is no Truth in him. When he 
speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar and 
the father of it. — John 8:45. 

The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound. — 
Robert Browning. 

Science Discovers No Evil. — If God be the only 
creator, how and whence came evil? This is nat- 
urally the first question when the inherency of 
God in creation is promulgated. If God be love, 
whence the hatreds, strifes, wars? If God be per- 
fection and life, how happen chaos and deformity? 
These are pertinent questions, and only that teach- 
ing which gives an intelligible answer will be ac- 
cepted by intelligent men and women. To seek to 
know, to shape in thought, to estimate truthfulness 
and beauty and to find adequate modes of expres- 
sion; this is real thinking. No one can be said 
really to think, who does not know what Truth is, 
and from this basis to judge evil with righteous 
judgment. 

The answer to the above questions must always 
be, that in God's universe, chaos, disease, hatred, 
strifes, wars and death do not exist. A divine 

76 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL yy 

power holds the constellations and solar systems in 
their places, and a divine order inheres in their re- 
lations to each other. There has been neither lapse 
nor deterioration in the order of creation during his- 
toric ages. The seasons come and go in conformity 
with the conditions we trace. The relation of our 
sun to its planets and of all suns to their planets is 
the same today as it was to the first man on the 
earth with sufficient intelligence to perceive it. 
Viewing life from this standpoint the positive asser- 
tion must be made that evil conditions do not inhere 
in the universe. This is the agreement of our 
scholars and the conclusion of their philosophies. 

Revelation Finds All Perfect. — There is another 
source of education than that which relates to our 
great external universe, whose testimony corrob- 
orates and supplements that of the scholars ; it is that 
of the seers, who proclaim, from the evidence of 
soul experience, an inner world not visible to the 
senses of man. The clearest vision of the long line 
of seers which our literature chronicles, is that of 
the Carpenter of Nazareth. So clear and radiant 
was his vision of Reality that he asked: "Which 
of you convinceth me of sin?'' There is absolutely 
no flaw in the perfect spiritual realm which he 
named, "The Kingdom of Heaven." Thus from 
the testimony of seers of the world within, and of 
scholars of the world without, creation is, as pro- 
nounced in the first judgment: "very good." 

The great universe which we absorb into con- 
sciousness as we stand under the vast dome of the 
arched heavens on a starlit night, being perfect, the 
invisible world which opens to us when in divine 



78 TRUTH AND LIFE 

communion with the Father being perfect, imper- 
fection is seen to be entirely due to that state of 
consciousness known as human. Evil inheres neither 
in the invisible nor visible universe. Evil is per- 
ceived only by human consciousness and is the prod- 
uct of it, the uncertain movements of a chaotic state 
of thinking which has not reached the definite con- 
clusion of the spirituality of the universe. 

Where Evil Is, — To define evil it must be brought 
within the narrow confines of the baseless thinking 
of individuals, and analyzed from the particular in- 
stead of the general basis. When man fails to per- 
ceive and obey divine principles he is invariably con- 
fronted with a disturbance of nature which he calls 
evil. These disturbances are incomprehensible to' 
him and subjugate him. Evil, therefore, lies only 
in the thought, vice, cruelty and diseases of sentient 
beings, and is the result of ignorance. Events and 
conditions to which man's ignorance render him 
subject, afifect the lives of individuals only; the in- 
finite rhythm and accurate order of the universe is 
untouched and untouchable so far as individual in- 
terference is concerned. 

Evil is that condition of thought known as mortal. 
The word mortal means to die. It is death-thought 
because it is not God-thought. The belief in evil 
has been a "murderer from the beginning" because 
not based on Reality. Man is compelled by an in- 
herent impulse to find Truth for his own safety. 
The mother bird throws her young from the nest 
thus compelling them to learn to fly, and a Father 
who is Infinite Love, Knowledge and Power, 
throws man on his own resources compelling him 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 79 

to find Truth in order to live. "It is not the will of 
your Father, which is in heaven, that one of these 
little ones should perish." It is the eternal will of 
the Father that all his children shall rise into "the 
resurrection and the life." God's supreme purpose 
for mankind is that they "know infinitely," and that 
they "love infinitely," and thus attain eternal life. 
Surely no soul travail is too great a price to pay 
for those treasures, which make us as "perfect as 
is the Father which is in heaven," and bestow upon 
us His own conviction of power. 

Evil is Sense Error. — Earth life with all of its 
conditions is the university of God in which man is 
educated in order that he may, as Jeremiah ex- 
presses it, "stand before the Lord of Hosts." Evil 
is ignorance, vacuums in the consciousness of 
human beings which must be filled by knowledge of 
Truth. The evils in our lives are conditions which 
we have not overcome; and conditions will remain 
the same with us until through spiritual discernment 
we destroy evils. If we have not health we have 
failed to work out wholeness ; if we are ignorant we 
have not worked out our education; if we are vi- 
cious we have not worked out our sanity; if we are 
poor and imcompetent we have not attained con- 
scious efficiency and supply. We can only "stand 
before God," when we meet, with a conviction of 
mastery, every demand that life makes upon us. 
The purpose of God is the evolution of, 

"The catholic man who hath mightily won 
God out of knowledge and good out of infinite pain; ^ 
And sight out of blindness and purity out of the stain." 



8o TRUTH AND LIFE 

Evil is the result of ignorance of the nature of 
the universe. The universe is a realm of perfect 
ideas, Infinite Mind's eternal thoughts. The vision 
of the present writers enables them to testify that 
the ideas of God are thought forms. These perfect 
forms are visible to man only as he transcends 
material beliefs and sees with the single eye of 
Spirit. Evil is seeing double, the result of eating 
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It is 
believing that there are two powers, good and evil, 
and two substances. Spirit and matter. The alle- 
gorical story of the "temptation and fall" is under- 
stood by the student of modern philosophic thought. 
Immanuel Kant wrote: "This world's life is only 
an appearance, a sensuous image of the pure 
spiritual life; and the world of sense only a picture 
swimming before our present knowing faculty like 
a dream, and having no reality in itself. For if we 
could see things and ourselves as they are, we would 
see ourselves in a world of spiritual natures, with 
which our entire real relation neither began at birth 
nor ends with the body's death." 

The serpent in the allegory is the sensuous ap- 
pearance which our imperfect senses report. An 
idea lies in abeyance in consciousness until the 
reason accepts it ; then it enters the subconscious- 
ness, and from that instant it is the controlling in- 
fluence; if the belief be false we become subject to 
it. Thus the fall is not an historic incident, but a 
daily occurrence in human life. When we accept 
the testimony of the senses we fall; when through 
spiritual discernment we perceive Truth we rise into 
"the resurrection and the life." 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 8i 

Eliminating False Beliefs, — Our whole educa- 
tional system rightly understood is the "forgiveness 
of sin," or the correction of sense testimony. The 
earth is not flat as it was formerly supposed to be ; 
Columbus disproved it. The earth is not the center 
of the solar system ; Copernicus discovered the truth 
about it. Man is not a material being subject to 
disaster ; the resurrection of Jesus established man's 
spirituality. The universe is a spiritual creation 
composed of God's perfect thoughts, and this is all 
that really is. The material misconceptions of the 
race are completely destroyed as man becomes 
spiritually illumined. When he perceives the real, 
the model is in his consciousness and real productive 
work must follow. "He who perceives the design 
must rule over it, and will that which is to be." 

Evil is thinking outside of spiritual principles, 
and has no origin nor creator, for it is not anything 
in itself. A no-thing can have no creator ; it is first 
and last the result of a misconception, and a mis- 
conception is failure to perceive and report reality. 
The man who makes a miscalculation in mathe- 
matics becomes more hopelessly entangled the 
further he proceeds. He is lost, and his only hope 
is the destruction of the first error and with it all 
the consequences it entailed. The application of 
the principle gives him results; miscalculation 
plunges him into confusion, from which only the 
perception of the principle of mathematics can 
rescue him. 

Sin and Evil One. — ^Evil is sin, and that is "miss- 
ing the mark." It is failure to perceive and apply 
spiritual principles. Sin is much deeper than a 



82 TRUTH AND LIFE 

mere moral infraction of social ethics, much more 
searching than that which humanity has recognized 
as wickedness. Sin is every thought and act which 
is not true to spiritual Reality. If we are not think- 
ing in Reality we are sinning; that is falling below 
the mark of real thinking. To fail to think the way 
a thing is can never be real thinking ; real thought is 
dependent on thinking the way things actually are. 
Sin produces dire consequences^ for the nature of 
thought is to become visible. The things that we 
see are all thought forms in our own consciousness, 
and reveal the thought with photographic integrity. 
To correct a sin thought find the Truth and the 
form is immediately and automatically corrected. 

A sin which becomes visible is a nonentity, for it 
has no counterpart nor model in the spiritual world. 
The nonentities of sin have no power and no reality 
save what is given them by the sinner who believes 
them to be real. All deformity, all that is repulsive, 
all diseased conditions are the products of sin. Sin 
inheres entirely in the false belief and not in the true 
man. Yet the true consciousness of man is ob- 
scured so long as there is sin, as surely as the 
ability to work correctly in mathematics is absent so 
long as miscalculation blocks the true solution. In 
sin man is hopelessly lost in the confusion of think- 
ing out of Principle. 

Sin is indirection, a cross current against the uni- 
versal order. "The way of the transgressor is 
hard." The trend of life is onward and upward 
and is the growth and expansion of spiritual ideas 
in consciousness. Everything in the universe is 
working for the man who has set his face toward the 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 83 

goal, for he is traveling the way of life. It is hard 
for a man to advance in the face of a great wind 
storm, but it is easy to go with the wind. Every 
aid comes to the man who travels with the Spirit, 
but difficulties and obstacles block the way of one 
who follows the sin path. The road is broad and 
it leads to destruction, but an Infinite Love has 
placed warnings along the way of the sinner — pain, 
unhappiness, unrest, disease, all are danger-signals 
indicating that he is not on the Way. 

The Results of Sin. — We see then that it is not 
God who punishes sin, but that sin and its conse- 
quences cannot be separated ; they are as closely re- 
lated as the root and the branch. There is a dif- 
ference between the sin of ignorance and the sin of 
wilful disobedience, and of these two classes the 
Way-Shower said : "And that servant which knew 
his lord's will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 
But he that knew not shall be beaten with few 
stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of 
him shall be much required ; and to whom men have 
committed much, of him they will ask the more." 
The man who knows suffers from his own self- 
condemnation for, "conscience doth make cowards 
of us all," but the ignorant escape the remorse 
which inevitably follows the wilful violation of the 
moral laws. Positive truths established in mind are 
from the God Mind; the negative beliefs are the 
conditions of human thought which result in sin and 
its effects. 

The universe exists for the education of each 
man, and man obtains satisfaction only as he gains 
conscious mastery of spiritual laws. Man's greatest 



84 TRUTH AND LIFE 

blessing is the companionship of those who are 
equal to himself in intelligence and power. Is it not 
apparent that this is the purpose of the Creator, that 
His children become His equals, in order that He 
may have the joy of their companionship? Only 
the man who knows his equality with God can 
"stand before*' Him, equipped to do the work de- 
manded by a Father who will take nothing less than 
His own efficiency from him. We know that which 
we have mastered, and possess only that which in- 
heres within our own consciousness. 

The Creation of Man, — In that masterly allegory, 
Kingsley's "Water Babies," Tommy (the earth 
man) is told that Mother Cary makes new things 
from old, and that she makes everything. When he 
finds her seated in the midst of the ocean apparently 
doing nothing, he is amazed that she is not busy. 
She tells him that her work is not to make things, 
but to make things make themselves. In one sense 
man is eternally made; that is, the ideal of man is 
unchangeable and is perfect in God consciousness. 
Man has thus far worked out his body, character, 
civilizations, arts and sciences, but these remain yet 
to be perfected through clearer spiritual discern- 
ment. The seer's vision of Truth that man is eter- 
nally perfect, is Reality; the scholar's insight into 
the facts of man's evolution from a primitive to his 
present state of consciousness, and from this to a 
more perfect state, is supplementary. When we 
perceive the Vision it is a conscious transition from 
the material to the spiritual basis. In all of this 
work man has had no external teacher, but his 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 85 

capacity to make this transition is innate and un- 
folds through his consciousness. 

Hell Is False Thought Made Visible, — Hell is a 
false and chaotic condition of thought. It is to be 
"imprisoned in the viewless winds and blown with 
restless fury round about the pendant world." 
When the sinner is enmeshed in false thinking, 
he can see in those false appearances only 
the ghosts of principleless and baseless beliefs. 
"Whosoever sinneth is the bondservant of sin," 
and on his sin are reared the walls of the only 
prison in which one can be pent. Sin is a hard 
taskmaster and exacts heavy toll from its victims 
for they leave all that is of worth, freedom, love, 
and ability, to become voluntary slaves to a master 
whose only wages is sorrow, confusion, disease and 
death. Sin culminates in a cul-de-sac whence no 
path leading to the things which make for happi- 
ness or accomplishment is visible. Sin obscures the 
radiant spiritual world, and the sinner is goalless, 
purposeless, meaningless, for the sinner dwells in 
the ghost-land of no-where. 

Human life is like the echo beloved of our child- 
hood. We have spoken mockingly, angrily, joy- 
fully and lovingly, and back upon us have echoed the 
reverberations exactly as we have sent them out. 
We live in a world peopled by our own thought 
images — not a joy that we cannot trace back to the 
faith and aspiration which we have long cherished; 
not a disease, failure nor sorrow, but back in the 
consciousness lies the thought germ which gave it 
existence. Emerson reports the old man as saying, 
"My children, on life's highway, you will meet 



86 . TRUTH AND LIFE 

nothing worse than yourself." We walk down the 
avenue of our years on the sanity or the sin, the love 
or the hatred, the wisdom or the folly, the faith or 
the infidelity, the virtue or the vice of the desires 
which we have entertained. 

The Delusion of Sin, — The man whose vision is 
obscured by sin is devoid of interest, and there is no 
inspiration to be gained from his condition except 
that negative lesson given in Proverbs : 

"I went by the field of the Slothful, 
And by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; 
And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, 
The face thereof was covered with nettles. 
And the stone wall thereof was broken down. 
Then I beheld, and considered well; 
I saw, and received instruction." 

Nothing grows in sin; all is deterioration; there 
being no constructive model it has no sustaining 
quality. Evil's only manifestation is disintegra- 
tion; "the wages of sin is death.'* 

The treadmill of the sin slave is a depressing 
spectacle. No inspiration for progress and con- 
struction is conveyed to the observers; no fresh- 
ness, no growth, no creative power, no inventive 
genius inspires us to emulation. The sinner is 
spiritually blind, and in a world full of wonderful 
things to be done, he "gropes and falls in seas of 
light." We know just what a man will do under 
the delusion of sin; he repeats his sin because like 
an automatic machine wound up to go off on 
schedule he is powerless while under it to do other- 
wise. Under the delusion of dishonesty the sinner 
will cheat, lie and steal on every occasion which 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 87 

presents itself. He is "possessed" of this "devil." 
Under the delusion of sensuous materiality, man is 
a waster and unproductive. He is bound on the 
wheel of his own false thinking and is not to be 
condemned, but freed. Self-preservation demands 
the healing from sin and disease through the healing 
of the race thought. 

The Unity of Man, — ^We are all members of one 
body, and as a diseased organ menaces the welfare 
of the whole body, one member of the race thinking 
viciously obscures the perfect vision of all; for 
humanity is a unit and rises and falls as one. H. G. 
Wells, in a modern interpretation of the prologue 
in "Job," speaks of Satan smiling, "and at his smile 
the criminal statistics of a myriad planets displayed 
an upward wave." It was the Master himself who 
proclaimed : "joy shall be in heaven over one sinner 
that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just 
persons which need no repentance." So long as 
there is a condemned criminal, an unhealed disease 
obscuring the vision of any member of the race we 
have not reached the goal. Sinners and criminals 
must all be cleansed and this work confronts every 
one who sees Truth. Until the very "devils" are sub- 
ject to us, we cannot "stand before" God. Every 
one who sees and acts from this insight is a lever 
in the consciousness of the race, "And I, if I be 
lifted up will draw all men unto me." 

Truth, the Shortest Distance Between Two Points. 
— Earth life is God's university; and man is work- 
ing out his salvation through the discovery of eternal 
Truth. Salvation is safety and there is no safety 
outside of spiritual principles. Success is the elim- 



88 TRUTH AND LIFE 

ination of the distance between two points, the one 
from which we start and the one we desire to at- 
tain. The destination of the race is spiritual 
dominion. The temptations which we must meet 
are examination tests; if we conquer we pass on, 
if we fail we are held in the grade befitting our 
state of immaturity. 

We study the life of the Way-Shower for the 
short cut, the elimination of the distance. Sin holds 
us earth bound and we must sever the cord. Sin 
is limitation, and we can pass onward only through 
its destruction. So long as a false belief remains, 
we are left in powerlessness and the inertia of ma- 
terialism. There is but one way to the life 
triumphant and that is the way taken by him who 
said: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." 
"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there 
is none other name under heaven given among men 
whereby we must be saved." 

The Eternal Contest. — In the fourth chapter of 
Matthew we read that Jesus met and conquered the 
devil. The "devil" is the sub-conscious race be- 
lief in materiality and separation which must be 
faced and destroyed by each one individually. This 
account could be known to no other than the Master 
himself. This intimate soul experience must there- 
fore have been reported directly to Matthew in one 
of those private talks which he had with his disci- 
ples. Every one who has had spiritual initiation 
knows the accuracy of the account. There are three 
type "temptations," and every sin which menaces the 
welfare of the individual and the race is found 
under one of these three heads. The powerful 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 89 

imagination of Dante has illustrated these tempta- 
tions under the symbol of three animals: the pan- 
ther, the lion and the she-wolf — sensuality, pride 
and avarice. 

The first temptation is the race belief of materi- 
ality. The most firmly fixed belief of man is that 
his life inheres in a material body. Man is not a 
body with a soul, he is an ideal in Soul ; that is, his 
life is eternal because held in the consciousness of 
God, and the result of this is his body. The Cosmic 
Vision opened to Jesus in baptism. He heard the 
inward Voice of the Father say, "This is my be- 
loved Son, in whom I am well pleased." After 
every vision comes the temptation or trial of faith 
that we may be able to stand securely and unswerv- 
ingly in it. Jesus was then "led up of the Spirit into 
the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil.*' The 
devil challenges the first man, but the Christ always 
challenges the devil that He may destroy it. The 
dawn of a great idea always arrays before the con- 
sciousness all the subtle sub-conscious beliefs, the 
doubts, fears, and limitations which must all be 
destroyed before the idea is established. 

Sin Merely Sense Conscious Beliefs, — Before the 
new idea is established in consciousness the lie or 
opposing belief is eliminated. As in physical life, 
we masticate, digest and assimilate our food, so in 
the spiritual life we perceive, understand and 
demonstrate a truth. The vision is perception; 
understanding and demonstration must follow be- 
fore it becomes an established state of conscious- 
ness. Therefore, after the vision of Jesus, the de- 
struction in himself of the race beliefs in materi- 



90 TRUTH AND LIFE 

ality was the inevitable consequence. It was the 
subtle sub-conscious belief which said: "If thou be 
the son of God, command that these stones be made 
bread." The temptation is to use spiritual power 
for the gratification of the material man. Man is 
spiritual, his good is inherent in his conscious 
knowledge that he is a spiritual and not a ma- 
terial being. We are converted when we are turned 
over in consciousness from the belief in materiality 
to the belief of the spirituality of the whole uni- 
verse. 

Through the destruction of this belief we come 
into right relationship with the body. The body is 
not man, but his servant, the instrument through 
which the Spirit is revealed. Discipline of mind is 
conveyed in this temptation. If the appetite and 
passions of the body dictate, man is the slave and 
not the master of his instrument. But if we can 
firmly stand in the conviction of God as Spirit, and 
bring every thought into captivity to Spirit, we rule 
the body and intelligently minister to its require- 
ments. This is the method which will enable us to 
rise daily to a higher conception of spirituality and 
power. The body is the station through which 
that intelligence which is man functions, and it must 
be raised up until it is adequate to the revelation of 
spiritual man. The resurrection of the body is the 
daily mental discipline which renders it more per- 
fectly responsive to spiritual demands. "Man shall 
not live by bread alone, but by every word which 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 

Pride, the Sin of Separation. — The second temp- 
tation is pride, the sin which isolates us from both 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 91 

God and man, and walls us up within a sense of 
separate existence. Man is not a creator but the 
instrument for the revelation of God Himself. As 
in that beautiful symbol of Jeremiah's: God is the 
Potter shaping man on the wheel, until all sin, all 
resistance, all sense of separateness has departed, 
and into the empty consciousness, God and all that 
He is, enters. "The devil taketh him up into the 
Holy City, and setteth him on the pinnacle of the 
Temple, and saith unto him, cast thyself down, for 
it is written. He shall give his angels charge con- 
cerning thee." To fall into the snare of using 
power either selfishly or foolishly is to close the 
avenue through which we receive power. Man 
does not try God, man proves God as the necessity 
arises for him to appropriate power for the progress 
of himself and his fellow man. "It is written again, 
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God." 

God has absolutely surrendered Himself to man, 
and only the absolute self-surrender of man enables 
him to be a recipient of God's life. "With this 
man will I dwell, even with him that is of a meek 
and contrite spirit." Reverence, love, humility, 
obedience, these are the conditions that keep us in 
touch with the spiritual world, enable us to learn its 
laws and to know its truths. By compliance with 
the laws of the spiritual world we put ourselves in 
possession of its blessings and its safety. 

The third temptation is avarice. Poor indeed is 
the man who places his trust in material possessions. 
Even that which a man seems to have takes wings 
and flies from him, if the idea of spiritual possession 
is not firmly based in consciousness. We really 



92 TRUTH AND LIFE 

possess nothing except as we perceive it to be a 
reality of the spiritual world. Man's possessions, 
his body and circumstances, are the revelation of 
his own thought world. To believe that one's pos- 
sessions are material is to place them where "moth 
doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal/' 
The meek alone possess the earth, and the meek are 
the self-unconscious; these are they who perceive 
that the treasures of the spiritual world belong to 
them only as they recognize their stewardship. 

He alone possesses all who knows that he pos- 
sesses nothing. To circumscribe one's wealth, to 
think of it as an individual possession is to limit 
it; to leave it in the universal is the ability to make 
out a draft upon it whenever and wherever re- 
quired, and to have it unfailingly honored. No one 
yet has had his drafts rejected who made them out 
upon the Infinite Love. The only safe possessions 
are those that we locate in God ; then all things are 
ours to legitimately use. Possession consists in hav- 
ing the right ideas in consciousness. That is ours 
of which we comprehend the Truth, and we cannot 
be shorn of it. "Treasures laid up in heaven" are 
the conviction of health, the conviction of friends, 
the conviction of competency, the conviction of sup- 
ply as spiritual realities. 

Earth-bound no More. — Real education must be 
wholly spiritual from the foundation. Wherever 
we stand on life's pathway we must turn to God, 
invoke His aid, and thus destroy the mortal beliefs 
which hold us earth-bound. We deflect life from 
its true course when we proceed from any other 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 93 

idea than to work out the spiritual ideal. We need 
not work for things, position or conditions, for all 
of these things follow in the wake of one who has 
mastered himself. Self-mastery is the elimination 
of all false beliefs, meeting and destroying all evil 
with the conviction of God's spiritual supremacy. 
After we have met and conquered the "devil'* the 
"angels" of God's own true ideas come and minister 
unto us. 

The great works which followed the temptations 
of Jesus were the result of his mastery of self. The 
only possible means of gaining the power he pos- 
sessed is by the same process. Every adverse con- 
dition that confronts us is an opportunity to prove 
the power of God. The strong soul does not want 
material conditions removed, save as he consciously 
destroys them and substitutes the spiritual Reality 
in place of them. Trials and temptations are our 
one means of comprehending and appropriating the 
power of God. We gain conscious possession 
through use, be it a faculty, talent or external con- 
ditions of power or wealth. The conditions of life 
that confront us are not to be shirked, but must be 
met with the conviction that, "greater is He that 
is within you than he that is in the world." 

The glory of life is the mastery of it. The man 
who masters himself and his conditions looks both 
the world and God in the face unafraid, and finds 
life endlessly interesting. Not a circumstance nor 
condition in the universe which the unconquerable 
Spirit of man will not master, for of man, the eter- 
nal Son of the Infinite God, was discerned by the 



94 TRUTH AND LIFE 

seer at Patmos: "I am Alpha and Omega, the be- 
ginning and the end. I will give unto him that is 
athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 
He that overcometh shall inherit all things." 



CHAPTER VI 
PRAYER AND ANSWER. 

And he spake a parable unto them unto this end, that 
man ought always to pray and not to faint." — Luke i6:i. 

I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the 
understanding also. — i Cor. 14:15. 

The Function of Prayer. — Prayer is the line of 
communication between man and his sustaining 
Creator. It is the absolute necessity of spiritual 
life, for man's life is a derived and not an original 
one. He receives life into his consciousness by the 
process of praying. The disciples of Jesus who saw 
the extraordinary work of their Master and knew 
that his power was the result of this communion, 
asked him to teach them to pray. Scientific prayer 
IS the appropriation of the beneficent conditions of 
the spiritual realm and the willingness to work in- 
telligently with a Father Whose eternal will is for 
man's perfection through knowledge of Truth. 

When it is understood that there is no ill to 
menace man but ignorance, prayer is seen to be the 
rise out of ignorance and impotence to knowledge 
and power. According to Froebel, education is the 
awakening of self-activity. Prayer, as taught by 
Jesus, is no mysterious incantation ; it is the exercise 
of the divine activity of Mind in the correction of 
human ills, and the one means of bringii^ into 

95 



96 TRUTH AND LIFE 

manifestation the perfection of the spiritual king- 
dom. Prayer brings us into the direct action of 
God, thus all things are possible to those who can 
pray and fulfil the conditions. In this age, we call 
the answer to prayer demonstration — to show, or to 
produce results. In the age of Jesus, it was called 
miracle — a marvel. The metaphysician understands 
that nothing "just happens." Every appearance is 
a thought made manifest, and the appearance is the 
exact replica of the thought. 

Prayer Is Cause, the Answer Is Effect, — Prayer 
is a conscious knowledge and application of Princi- 
ple, the result of which is the inevitable consequence. 
An applied principle ''answers'' itself. Prayer is 
the purposeful, definite action in Mind, and the re- 
sult is in proportion to the faith we put into it. 
The answer to prayer is no more mysterious than 
the fact that striking certain chords on a piano pro- 
duces certain sounds. We hear the sound; we see 
the thought. It is high time that human conscious- 
ness should grasp the great science of prayer, for it 
was known over twenty-five hundred years ago by 
the prophet Jeremiah : "Every man's word shall be 
his burden ; for ye have perverted the words of the 
living God,'' It was later proclaimed by the great- 
est of all prophets: "By thy words shalt thou be 
justified, and by thy words shalt thou be con- 
demned." All evil is the result of using this law 
inversely. All that is right in human life is the re- 
sult of fulfilling it faithfully and intelligently. Evil 
is the objectification of untrue beliefs; good is the 
objectification of true thought. Truth realized. 

It is as useless to deal with an external object as 



PRAYER AND ANSWER 97 

it IS to deal with a discordant sound. When we 
cease to strike discordant sounds, the discord is 
destroyed. When we cease to think wrongly and 
think Truth, the untrue condition apparent to finite 
sense is destroyed, and in its place stands the ob- 
jectified Reality. Everything that we hear, every- 
thing that we see is a thought objectified. The 
object is real, the sound is true, if the idea is based 
on the divine Model, or it is untrue if this has not 
been perceived. There is never the least idea in our 
consciousness which is not the starting point for an 
appearance visible to our senses. 

The Science of Prayer. — Prayer is an exact and 
demonstrable science. We learn to pray as we 
learn to be electricians, aviators, or musicians. 
Certain principles must be comprehended and ap- 
plied. In the study of an art, the first thing that 
the teacher demands of the student is that he take 
the correct position. Position gives a sense of re- 
lationship and mastery. The Master Teacher of the 
master art and science has not neglected this im- 
portant measure. Effective prayer demands the 
position of being inside Divine Mind. This can be 
done only as we completely shut out human limi- 
tation. The servile beseechings of one who thinks 
of himself as an "outsider" are unheard by God ; but 
the slightest aspiration of His child the Father 
hears. Directions for prevailing prayer are ex- 
plicitly given by Him who asserted: "All things, 
whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall 
receive." "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into 
thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray 



98 TRUTH AND LIFE 

to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father 
which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly/* 

The spiritual Kingdom, with its complete supply 
for every human need, is the watercourse to which 
we repair in prayer, and recognizing the abundance 
of all good, we fill the seeming lack in our con- 
sciousness from the fountain which never faileth. 
If we do not fulfil the conditions we do not receive 
the answer. The Father can "reward thee openly'' 
only after you have complied with the law. When 
we realize the purpose of a Divine Love which 
would have our manhood equal to His Godhood, we 
would not have this otherwise. God's first and last 
desire for His son is spiritual competency, and when 
we put away the immature desires of human selfish- 
ness, this is our supreme desire for ourselves. 

Divine Expectancy. — Finite sense does not recog- 
nize the infallibility of prayer when it is in process 
of fulfillment. The grain of corn dies, as die it 
must before the new growth. A true prayer is 
breathed out into the universe. Who has the sight 
so fine and true that it can follow a prayer? After 
its flight, we are compelled to walk by faith and not 
by sight. If we fail to keep the faith until we re- 
ceive the answer, the condition is unfulfilled, God's 
only line of transmission being through our con- 
sciousness. Having made our prayer, the attitude 
must be a confident one awaiting the answer. Great- 
ness is always the ability to wait undaunted, though 
the answer seem delayed, in surety of its ultimate 
arrival. "Let patience have her perfect work, that 
ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." 
Thus James, who, scholars claim, was the brother of 



PRAYER AND ANSWER 99 

the Great Teacher, admonishes us convincingly ; and 
again he says, **He that wavereth is like the wave 
of the sea driven by the wind and tossed; let not 
that man think that he shall receive anything of 
the Lord." 

The Certainty of the Answer, — "For verily I say 
unto you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain, 
be thou removed and cast into the sea ; and shall not 
doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things 
which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have 
whatsoever he saith/' As surely as the earth seed 
must have its soil, its moisture and its sunshine, the 
spiritual seed — the word — without which "was not 
anything made that was made," must have its con- 
ditions fulfilled. This is the time of faith — knowing 
— that in due season we shall receive the answer. 
There are no failures in Divine Mind, and he who 
works in it finds himself clothed with Its power. 
The ability is purity, the nutriment is faith, the sun- 
^shine is expectancy. In the unseen Reality, the true 
state of things is unfolding, and he who faints not 
will reap the harvest of rightness. 

We are no more confined by our old belief of 
body and circumstances than we are bound by our 
old sheets of copy. We ruthlessly fill the waste 
basket with discarded material as our consciousness 
perceives better ideas and better ways of expressing 
them. As we climb the spiritual heights we demand 
more responsive bodies, and wider opportunities for 
living. Spiritual life is freedom of motion, ease 
of body and conditions, and a conviction of the re- 
sponsiveness of the universe of Reality to our in- 
dividual requirements. 



100 TRUTH AND LIFE 

We do not always recognize true prayer in another 
when we see it. Human beings are limited to their 
own methods and condemn others who dare to see 
differently from their own restricted outlook. Prayer 
is the sincere desire for righteousness, wherever and 
however expressed. Prayer is rising out of the 
darkness and limitation of mortal thought into God's 
Light and Truth. Conscientious sincerity to do the 
right thing in the right way is always true prayer. 
Prayer must always be accompanied by its con- 
comitant act; if it is not so completed, it is still- 
born. No demonstration can follow for it is seed 
sown upon the rock. If we fail to act in accordance 
with our prayers, we do not actually believe that we 
have received. 

Unity Essential to True Prayer, — ^When we enter 
into true prayer, we never utter a private or per- 
sonal petition. To ask for a private good is to be 
ignorant of the unity of the universe. The needs of 
the human family are all the same. When we 
pray, we leave the shams of sense, and enter into 
Reality in order to have it expressed in our lives 
and to see that in this realm every need of the race 
has been fully supplied. Prayer is the recognition 
of the eternal completion of all mankind. The as- 
piration of which we are always conscious does not 
originate within what we have thought to be our- 
selves, but it is the pressure of the eternal God de- 
manding expression through us. Every sincere de- 
sire is a prophecy of its own fulfillment. We enter 
into prayer in order to let it be done unto us ac- 
cording to His Will. 

The true nature of every child of the living God 



PRAYER AND ANSWER loi 

IS receptivity and obedience. In right relationship 
with the Father, we are in a condition to receive 
and obey. The Spirit always supplies the need and 
prepares the way, if we wait upon It and do not rush 
along in mortal inefficiency and blindness. There 
IS a light for each to walk by. We can never sever 
our connection with Infinite Intelligence and Sub- 
stance, but failing to perceive we blunt the fine per- 
ception of their Presence. Prayer is the capacity 
to receive and the ability to obey. 

^*To the far realm of Wisdom there lies a short way, 
To find it we need but the password obey: 
Obey like the acorn that falls to the sod 
To rise through the heart of the oak tree to God." 

Prayer and Answer Are One, — Prayer is con- 
nected with its answer, and the two co-ordinate as 
the root of the plant co-ordinates with the flower. 
Impression is made upon the consciousness as we 
open in prayer to the Spirit. Expression follows, 
for no thought can come into the consciousness 
without coming into visibility. "There is nothing 
hidden that shall not be revealed." The inmost 
thoughts come into tangible expression in life, be- 
cause effects follow cause as the shadow follows 
the body. Through prayer eternal Reality's in- 
sistent demand to be established in the consciousness 
of man is satisfied. A sincere desire for purer and 
truer conditions does not come from helow but from 
above. It is the Urge from the Over Soul. 

When thought is so trained that it is true to the 
spiritual realm, it is prayer. Divine Creation is the 
real thought of everything that is. It is the princi- 
ple or first of all things, therefore only true thought 



102 TRUTH AND LIFE 

can represent it. The "first shall be last." The 
original thought of God must be the last thought of 
man. Whenever we are thinking correctly, we are 
praying; and all such thinking invariably results in 
true and harmonious conditions. Incorrect think- 
ing is the result of not being able to see and to con- 
form to the Principle everywhere present, and this 
IS the miscreation of "all the ills that flesh is heir 
to." Incorrect thinking is dissipation. Failure in 
power and substance is the harvest of the waster. 
Concentration is the power to focus the attention 
upon an idea until it is attained. "He that gather- 
eth not with me scattereth," said he whose clear 
seeing and purposeful thinking always attained the 
goal. 

Transforming Power of Prayer. — Prayer is the 
habit of those who are governed by Principle. We 
must think either in mortal chaos or in the divine 
order of true thought. Whenever we have made 
efforts in the past to transcend the temporal and 
live in the light of the spiritual, much has been ac- 
complished. When we were living from the 
material outlook and were constantly confronted 
with lack, misery, crime, and ignorance, we were 
engulfed in confusion, not knowing which way to 
turn. We have been compelled to stop and listen 
on those occasions, to turn from the material out- 
look to the spiritual uplook, and lo ! all is changed. 
These transformations have been so evident on in- 
numerable occasions that proverbs have been coined 
from them. "Man's extremity is God's oppor- 
tunity" and "The darkest hour is just before the 
dawn" are two of the best known. Material walls 



PRAYER AND ANSWER 103 

crumble when spiritual power is turned upon them; 
this invariably occurs when we revert in instinctive 
prayer to the Spirit. "Haply/' says Sidney Lanier, 
"we know somewhat more than we know." 

"Material'' man is unknown to God as he is to 
the real of every man. Selfish desires can never 
reach the great Father of all. Were the prayer of 
our selfishness and immaturity granted, chaos 
would be the result. He who can consummate a 
selfish desire is defeated; he is out of relationship 
with God and his fellow man. This class of so- 
called prayer was discounted by one whom we so 
justly revere, Abraham Lincoln. At a critical time, 
some one said to him, "I hope God will be on our 
side." Lincoln answered characteristically, "I am 
not so much concerned to have God on my side, as 
to try to put myself on God's side." 

Prayer is Realization, — The one means to ad- 
vancement is to realize God. Education and im- 
provement in any line come through this realization. 
When we are praying, we are thinking of Reality. 
When we think Reality we express our real nature 
and true condition. There is no other means 
through which we can help ourselves or humanity. 
If we are thinking of ourselves or of others as any- 
thing less than perfect beings we injure the race. 
We alter every untrue condition in our own lives 
and that of others by prayer. Prayer is not an 
action of the so-called human mind ; it is recognition 
of the perfection of Mind, and adjustment from the 
perfect action of this Mind. To know the right 
thing to do in any difficulty with another, we must 
rise into God Mind, through the elimination of the 



104 TRUTH AND LIFE 

thought of ourselves as separate from Him. Then 
we are in condition to receive the solution and to 
trust to the action of God to work it out. 

Prayer and Answer. — Man is the son of God, and 
by virtue of this relationship he is able to face fear- 
lessly every problem which confronts him and to 
draw upon the intelligence and power of God suffi- 
ciently to meet the condition. Scepticism is nothing 
but spiritual inexperience. It is easier to slide down 
hill than to climb up; it is easier to disbelieve than 
to believe; inefficienicy is always easier than 
demonstration; but those who go this way are not 
they whom the race has crowned with laurel leaves. 
The great men who have accomplished worth-while 
things and have let in new light upon the conscious- 
ness of the race have done it through prayer and 
work. 

Prayer Is Laying Hold on Omnipotence, — ^We 
think of Jesus as possessing some extraordinary 
power. His power was not extraordinary ; he used, 
intelligently and therefore unselfishly, the ordinary 
capacity all possess. The power that raised him 
from the dead is the power that raises you and me 
each morning after a night's sleep. We draw upon 
this power in direct ratio to our belief in it. We 
limit power, it does not limit us. If the power of 
God is able to raise up one man from the dead, it is 
able to raise all men from death. Power is equally 
and evenly distributed throughout the universe, and 
the amount of it we have is the amount that our 
consciousness appropriates. 

When we pray we must go over to Omnipotence j 
it can never come over to the limited beliefs of finite 



PRAYER AND ANSWER 105 

sense. If we are working in human beliefs of good 
and pleading with God to help us through, our 
prayers are vain; our work will fail; our time and 
energies will be wasted. On God's side is actually 
what we want, no matter how it may appear to finite 
sense. If you find yourself in the wrong, step over 
to the right, though it seem that you leave all your 
friends and are rushing into the camp of your 
enemies. A striking thing always happens when we 
are true enough to do this, enemies are changed into 
friends and the friends we have apparently left fol- 
low us. It is impossible to lose when in divine Prin- 
ciple, for victory is established here in eternal ad- 
justment, and sooner or later all come into it. 

To be able to pray effectually we must have faith 
both in God and ourselves. Believe absolutely, per- 
sistently and definitely in God's goodness, avail- 
ability and power. He is the infinite capacity to 
bestow on the children of His love the immensity 
of His powers and the inexhaustibility of His gifts. 
In the same manner that we believe in God's desire 
to confer the treasures of the Kingdom upon His 
children, we must believe in the ability of man to 
receive these gifts. If God is infinite capacity to 
give, man is infinite capacity to receive. We do 
not pray to change the Mind of God or to wrench 
a blessing from a disinclined giver. We pray to 
change the limited beliefs of our ability and capacity 
into the largeness of God's purpose for us. We 
pray to be able to translate God's will for man into 
terms of actual accomplishment. Prayer is not, as 
Phillips Brooks reminds us, "forcing God's reluc- 
tance ; it is taking hold of God's willingness." 



io6 TRUTH AND LIFE 

God's Demand Implies Our Power, — The life 
divine is the response to the spiritual demand for 
expression through us and the ability to carry out 
these orders — for orders they are — faithfully and 
authoritatively. God*s Infinity demands expression 
through the avenue of His Son's consciousness. 
Man is an ambassador from the Courts of Heaven 
charged with power to change earth conditions into 
heavenly ones. The miracles of the Christ are 
records of his pure receptivity to the Spirit in its 
insistence for expression, and of his belief in his 
own power, because of his sonship, to execute the 
requisition. 

Man as son of God is the infinite capacity to re- 
ceive and to express the absolute perfection of the 
kingdom of eternal Reality. Prayer is the means 
through which he is enabled to do this. Prayer is 
always answered. Finite sense may not recognize 
the answer when it comes, but the answer does 
come unfailingly. The penetrating eye of Infinitude 
pierces to the real desire and perceives what we 
actually want. This may not be what the mortal 
believes that he wants. The baby may want to play 
with the fire; the mother wisely takes the fire from 
the baby, and the baby from the fire. When the 
child comes to man's estate it obtains the fire 
through conscious control of it. The immediate 
answer to our petitions is frequently the discipline 
and education required to make us competent to 
pray and able to receive the gift that we desire. 

It is conscious direction of all earth forces and 
of all spiritual powers that the infinite Father de- 
mands His children should attain. Thus alone do 



PRAYER AND ANSWER 107 

we have what we desire. Yet there are times when 
human beings in their wilful ignorance do obtain 
that which they are neither able to hold nor con- 
trol. If they insist upon having their own selfish 
way they get it, but they invite the result with it. 
Sin and its consequences can never be separated. 
**The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and 
the violent take it by force.'' But force never yet 
actually gained its objective. Wisdom and love are 
the only real possessors. That which is gained by 
force subtly eludes its holder, for it is not a real pos- 
session. All work for things and ends by so-called 
human mind and will, shares this fate. 

The Lord's Prayer. — The Master bequeathed his 
disciples a model prayer. This is a method by 
which to transcend human thought by rising into 
God thought. Step by step we advance out of the 
fetters which hold us earth-bound, into the gracious 
freedom of spiritual life. This prayer was not 
given to be memorized and repeated in parrot fash- 
ion. Distinctly we are told "after this manner" to 
pray. Absolute sincerity alone enables us to come 
into the Spirit of this prayer. Sincere prayer has 
but one petition, that the righteousness of God be 
made manifest. The heart must be emptied of 
selfish and vain desires to rise into God's desire for 
mankind. 

"Our Father," the opening words, lift us above 
the material belief of separation from God or man. 
All petty resentment, antagonism, condemnation 
and resistance must be destroyed as we thus turn 
to the Father in prayer. We cannot pray either for 
or with another without realizing our unity both 



io8 TRUTH AND LIFE 

with that other and with God, who holds us both 
in his Consciousness. We must love our fellow 
beings when we come with them to God in prayer. 
It is useless to proceed further until we feel this; 
to pray for another is the sure precursor to our 
entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. To love 
God and our fellow man is to be in and of this 
Kingdom. 

"Hallowed be thy name/' is reverent receptivity, 
the true relationship of man to his God. "Thy will 
be done on earth as in heaven." That which has 
retarded the comprehension of Christianity more 
than any other single thing is its misconception of 
the will of God. God is love; the will of love is 
that we love and be beloved. God is life ; the will of 
life is expression, health, perfection, completion. 
God is truth ; and the will of Truth is nothing-with- 
holding, but is its own complete revelation. 

This is the prelude, which brings us into unison 
with God. This attained we are ready to present 
our petition: "Give us this day our daily bread." 
Prayer must take the whole human race with it. 
Humanity is a unit and no one can rise without be- 
ing a lever for the whole race. That which God has 
united no man can put asunder. Man has a three- 
fold nature, spiritual, mental and physical. He 
needs "bread" (sustenance) for all of these depart- 
ments, physical needs of shelter, food, clothing, 
mental needs of education and competency, spiritual 
needs of companionship, expression, love, freedom 
and beauty. There is no lack in the Kingdom of 
God, and as we become aware of this Kingdom we 
fill every seeming lack in any of life's departments. 



PRAYER AND ANSWER 109 

"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those 
who trespass against us." The avenue over which 
our forgiveness flows to another is the road over 
which God's forgiveness comes to us. The heart 
that is shut to his brother is shut to his brother's 
Father also. "And lead us not into temptation, but 
deliver us from evil." Trials and temptations are 
our opportunities for transcending the ordinary self 
by the revelation of spiritual power. Life is a spir- 
itual gymnasium, and every trial that confronts us, 
the invitation to appropriate sufficient spiritual 
power through prayer to overcome all evil. So long 
as we pray we are victors for we have engaged the 
Father's intelligence and power to carry us tri- 
umphantly through the ordeal. The moment we 
cease to pray we leave power, and become impotent 
victims. We are on the winning side when we ac- 
cept any condition which confronts us as our oppor- 
tunity; for man is greater than anything which 
can occur to him. We do not go through but fall 
under any temptation, immediately we regard any 
situation as anything less than an opportunity to 
prove the perfection and power of the Father. 

Prayer Is to Enter Universal Good, — Efficacious 
prayer is rising into the light of the Whole, the ad- 
justing of differences by accepting conditions pre- 
vailing in the realm of Reality. Prayer is a state- 
ment of needs, spiritual and temporal, with the 
recognition from the child that an infinite Father 
wills to supply these necessities. Infinity answers 
all sincere prayers in conformity to its absolute Law. 
When we fall into the error of specifying the man- 
ner in which these gifts shall be supplied, we igno- 



no TRUTH AND LIFE 

rantly would instruct Infinity. It is God alone who 
giveth the increase, and He does it in ways beyond 
the ken of any finite intelligence. Life is all one, 
and adjustment can be made only in the Universal. 
Anything less than this is not true prayer. 

Through prayer we come into right relationship 
with God and man. Only as we come into true 
relationship with God do we come into true rela- 
tionship with man. These are reciprocal. Chris- 
tianity is characterized by one supreme word, and 
that is agreement. Agreement with God is the 
prayer that never faileth; agreement with man is 
eternal destruction of all mortal selfishness and 
consequent conditions. Man's indifference to his 
brother's ignorance and unhappiness is the cause of 
much of the misery of the human family. It is only 
as we see each other in the light of the Spirit that 
those difficulties can be settled. Agreement is the 
law of the Kingdom. If there is only One Mind, 
there is not any one or anything with which to 
disagree. 

In disagreement we repel; in agreement we in- 
terpret and attract. One who faithfully interprets 
the divine nature does it through conscious unity. 
One who appropriates the Mind and Substance of 
Life does it by his at-one-ment with them. In 
disagreement with man, we cannot get into right 
relationship with God, for we are not in the One 
Mind. Not being in the Mind, we are not fulfiUing 
the requisites of prayer. So imperative is this posi- 
tion that Jesus tells us in the "Sermon on the 
Mount," "Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the 
altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath 



PRAYER AND ANSWER iii 

aught against thee, leave thy gift and be reconciled 
to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." 
Agreement with man is the index of our agreement 
with God; for no disagreement is possible where 
there is but One. 

Prayer Without Ceasing. — Persistency is a vital 
element of prayer. If we ever cease to pray, if our 
faith ever fails, then we have abandoned the Prin- 
ciple, and so are lacking in the power to carry the 
conception through to demonstration. To perceive 
a principle renders us unable to give up; we are 
then constrained to continue until we receive. Per- 
sistency always wins in the end, for the simple rea- 
son that it will not take anything less than it has 
asked, and will not stop until the goal is won. To 
cease from pursuing a quest before it is attained is 
impotence. The man who has yoked himself to 
Omnipotence through prayer has stricken the word 
failure from his vocabulary. "In due time ye shall 
reap if ye faint not," comes ringing down the cen- 
turies, swelling now into a magnificent crescendo as 
our ears become sensitized to words that are Spirit 
and Life. 

Prayer is the ability to stand in the "Everlasting 
Yea" and defy the "everlasting nay." One is of 
God's Kingdom of Reality, the other is mortal be- 
lief in materiality. All mortal belief is negation; 
the "everlasting nay" is what is not, no matter 
how apparent it may seem to finite sense. To the 
one who sees the "Everlasting Yea" the nay is 
meaningless. Prayer is effective in proportion as 
the idea of spiritual Creation is clear and distinct 
to our consciousness. An idea is clear in the degree 



112 TRUTH AND LIFE 

of our inability to think its opposite. A distinct 
idea is the conclusion at which we have arrived 
after we know all the essential facts — in other words 
the Truth. We cannot perceive the perfection of 
anything or of any one and think of him in other 
terms. 

An absolute trust pervades the one who prays, 
and clothes him about as an aura. Prayer as the 
constant attitude of mind is an invincible armor. 
Prayer enables us to walk consciously on the high- 
way of the Spirit above the surge and din of mortal 
clamor. No prayer is unanswered until we cease 
to pray; no one is ever defeated until he acknowl- 
edges it. Jesus lying in the tomb did not acknowl- 
edge death or defeat, and the triumphant "answer" 
was the Resurrection. It was the darkest moment 
in history, yet after the darkest night the brightest 
morn broke, the triumph of prayer over man's great- 
est enemy. 

The Presence of the Presence, — We move in a 
world of mystery, and man, child of an infinite God, 
is satisfied only as he knows the meaning and pur- 
pose of life. We become conscious of a Presence, 
that grows more familiar as we open into it. At 
first, it is an illusive something that darts in and 
out of our consciousness ; later we come to know it 
as an abiding companion, to whom we trustingly 
turn in every difficulty. We find that this Presence 
with whom we commune in prayer, is Something 
that carries us through the daily tasks and duties as 
easily and f rictionlessly as the earth is carried in its 
orbit around the sun. We learn to depend upon it 
for guidance and to yield ourselves to it without 



PRAYER AND ANSWER 113 

reservation. We accept it as the substance of all 
things for which we hope. 

We who have come to know God through prayer 
do not laboriously carry about our religion; it car- 
ries us through every trial and temptation. It lifts 
us to an eminence from which we are enabled to 
deal with all the problems that confront us. Noth- 
ing is too difficult for our God to carry us through 
triumphantly. An olden-time prophet looked scorn- 
fully at the procession of idolators each bearing his 
god, and sarcastically cried, "Ye have gods that ye 
carry, but we have a God that carries us,'* 

One who is cumbered with mortal unbeliefs must 
unload before he can pray. These behefs are the 
false gods laboriously carried about by their holders. 
The days of idolatry will not be over until mortal 
beliefs are destroyed. Every one who locates his 
treasure elsewhere than in the Kingdom, and who 
holds fast to his material beliefs, belongs to the old 
procession and still merits the prophet's rebuke. 
We cannot come into the Presence so weighted. 
False belief is the tether which holds us earth- 
bound; we rise only as we unloose from it. The 
great difficulty which confronts us is unlearning 
the vast amount of human learning which has no 
basis in the things that are. Unfortunately human- 
ity thinks it knows much which never was, is not, 
and never will be. Truth is astonishingly simple; 
complications all belong to the mortal realm. There 
are few principles, and these are endlessly applicable 
to every condition ; but he who sees knows that eter- 
nity is none too long for their application. 

Making Connection Just Where We Are, — All 



114 TRUTH AND LIFE 

men have equal intelligence, for all have access to 
the One Mind in prayer. Men differ only in their 
comprehension of this supreme method of attain- 
ment. Every man has received from God the fac- 
ulty of perception or the ability to solve all problems 
through the comprehension of spiritual law. Every- 
thing is everyv^^here present, for God Mind and 
Substance are one and indivisible. Whatever the 
need, wherever the place, all that we require is. 
Hush the mortal clamor and the eyes will see, the 
ears will hear, the heart will understand : *'Be still 
and know that I am God." When Hagar did this 
in the wilderness, her eyes were opened and she 
beheld the well which saved her life and that of her 
son. 

"I ascend unto my Father and your Father; and 
to my God and your God.'' Every thought and act 
of the great Way-Shower led straight up to the 
Ascension. He absolutely and literally meant that 
any one who thought as he thought and lived as 
he lived would "never taste death." He prayed 
without ceasing and thus drew upon the Power 
sufficiently to meet every demand. No man gets to 
the top of a mountain except by going up. No one 
triumphs in any line of work save by persevering 
in a straight line. Life is a continuous unfolding 
capacity to comprehend God and demonstrate His 
Principles, and this process, which some call evolu- 
tion, the Master called prayer. 

The way to any goal is to continue straight ahead 
in its direction. This can be done only by keeping 
the end in view. All the way to music is music. 
The discord always retards. AH the way to mathe- 



PRAYER AND ANSWER 115 

matics is mathematics. The error holds us bound 
in one place. All the way to spiritual attainment 
and accomplishment is the application of divine 
Principle. The Ascension of Jesus was a continu- 
ous progressive unfoldment into God's idea of man. 
"Pray without ceasing/' is not the arbitrary com- 
mand of a dogmatic teacher, but the assured direc- 
tion of one who has attained a goal, to those who 
would attain it. He who has traveled a road knows 
the way and is competent to direct others. 

Prayer is a state of absolute trust that the Power 
which clothes the lily and holds the planets in their 
orbits, likewise shapes the destiny of man and sup- 
plies his every need. Prayer is communion and 
transmission. It is the communion of the child 
with his Father, and the transmission of the Father's 
power and substance to His child. It is life's com- 
pletion — the Son seated on the right hand of the 
Father in spirtual power. It is the rejoicing of the 
"jubilant and beholding soul." It is the attainment 
of the "seeing eye" and the "hearing ear." It is 
man rejoicing in God his Father ; it is God triumph- 
ing in man, His child. 



CHAPTER VII 

CONSCIOUSNESS. 

Three souls which make up one soul: 
First, to- wit: 

A soul of each and all the bodily parts 
Seated therein, which works and is what Does 
And has the use of earth and ends the man 
Downward, but tending upward for advice 
Grows into and again is grown into 
By the next soul, which, seated in the brain, 
Useth the first with its collected use, 
And f eeleth, thinketh, willeth, is what Knows ; 
Which duly tending upward in its turn, 
Grows into and again is grown into 
By the last soul which useth both the first. 
Subsisting whether they assist or no, 
And constituting man's self is what Is, 
And leans upon the former, makes it play 
As that played off the first, and tending up, 
Holds, is upheld by God, and ends the man 
Upward, in that dread point of intercourse, 
Nor needs a place for it returns to Him, 
What Does, What Knows, What Is, three souls, one man. 

— Robert Browning. 

God Consciousness. — God is infinite conscious- 
ness. By this we mean that God is conscious of 
man and creation in their ultimate and absolute per- 
fection eternally. With God, mind and conscious- 
ness are synonymous. With man, however, the 
terms mind-conscious, sub-conscious, and super- 
conscious must be used. These distinctions cannot 
be applied to God, for there can be nothing above 

ii6 



CONSCIOUSNESS 117 

or below pure Knowing, which is the eternal ulti- 
mate of all life. 

The Infinite Consciousness in which we live, move 
and have our being is what Jesus called the King- 
dom of Heaven. It is the eternal and unchangeable 
Real. It fills all space with its perfect conscious- 
ness and perfect substance, for Reality alone is. 
Materiality is foreign and alien; its quasi existence 
being nowhere, except in a false sense of life. It is 
only as we lose the material and accept the spiritual 
concept that we become aware of Reality. We can- 
not believe a body to be square and round at the 
same time. It is one or the other. Since God is 
Spirit, creation cannot be otherwise than its Creator ; 
therefore creation too is spiritual. 

The consciousness of God is the super-conscious- 
ness of man. From this consciousness man has be- 
come aware of himself and creation only to the 
extent that the race has progressed on its journey 
of self-realization. Because God is aware of man, 
man becomes aware of himself and works out his 
body, his arts and his civilizations from God con- 
sciousness. The evolution and the history of the 
race are sequential records of the manner in which 
man has become conscious of himself. 

"In thy light shall we see light." In infinite con- 
sciousness, man is becoming conscious. Every one 
who is awake to Reality is more or less assured of 
an all-pervading, illuminating Presence. In our 
highest moments, we are aware of that which is in 
itself both Mind and Substance. It fills all voids, 
it welds all manifestations of life into one concrete 
expression. There are no isolated lives, no discon- 



ii8 TRUTH AND LIFE 

nected events; there is unity, there is sequence 
throughout the universe. In this light, we are able 
to trace present events back to past conditions, and 
to see that the present is pregnant with future his- 
tory. 

The Conscious, the Sub-Conscious and the Super- 
Conscious. — Mind in man has been likened to a pole 
indefinitely extended at both ends with an illumi- 
nated disc in the center. The illuminated disc is 
the consciousness of man. The upper end of the 
pole is his super-consciousness, the All-Knowing 
of God in which man's being is complete. Man is 
open to this mind only through his spiritual nature. 
It illumines, informs and reforms him as he be- 
comes aware of its nature and character. Spiritual 
man (and there is no other), is always in the super- 
conscious realm, for God always knows him as His 
own perfect image. God consciousness is the one 
realm which eternally is, and all perceivable things 
are but man's conception and translation of this 
one creation. 

Scientists claim in the study of vibrations worlds 
within worlds are disclosed; The scale runs from 
dense low vibrations of seemingly solid material 
through finer and finer worlds. As innumerable 
voices fill a room at the same time, each voice, how- 
ever, maintaining its distinct individuality, so these 
worlds, various interpretations of the one Real, 
exist in the consciousness of the interpreters. With 
sense eyes we think we see all sorts and conditions 
of men; we actually see the resultants of the many 
conceptions of what man is, each proclaiming the 
individual's belief in himself. 



CONSCIOUSNESS 119 

From the realm of the super-conscious, through 
his consciousness man has worked out all that he 
possesses. The conscious mind is the attention. 
The process of evolution is to focus the attention 
upon a faculty or an idea, until it is recorded in 
consciousness. This means that it has entered as a 
memory cell into the human body, thus becoming an 
active part of the self. The evolution of the race 
is the successive stages through which man has be- 
come aware of himself and of his inherent facul- 
ties. At first, he perceives but dimly; his transla- 
tions are crude — these we call material. The **mate- 
rial," however, is but the manifestation of human 
thinking. The process of evolution will continue 
until man clearly sees, and a perfect interpretation 
of the man whom God has created is revealed. The 
perfect body and conditions will appear in our con- 
sciousness as we more clearly perceive spiritual 
creation. 

On the lower end of the pole we are open to 
the race beliefs. The concrete result of our sub- 
conscious records is the human body. The sub- 
consciousness of the race is the sum total of the 
knowledge of which man has become aware, regis- 
tered in the manner in which he has gained it. On 
the physical or sub-conscious side, our memory goes 
back to the tree man, the cave man and the multi- 
tudinous expressions of life in which man stands at 
the apex, because he holds within himself "all right 
ideas," the image and likeness of the infinite Whole. 
He is a concrete expression of God in miniature, 
the microcosm in the macrocosm. 

The Recording Angel. — Man is "heir of all the 



120 TRUTH AND LIFE 

ages'' because the human body is the record of the 
race attainment. The Recording Angel is no fable ; 
it is a reality discovered by insight into the most 
stupendous feat of the race. The conscious mind 
in man records and retains in the sub-conscious the 
exact account of all the discoveries and experiences 
of the human family. We are reading this record 
in the accomplishments and conditions of the race 
to date. The study of its evolution brings to the 
student an infinite trust. As in the vision of Eze- 
kiel, we see that humanity has always been going 
"straight forward.'' Physical fitness in the evolu- 
tion of the body, democracy in the evolution of 
governments, liberality in the evolution of religion, 
are the results of the eternal fiat: "Let there be 
Light." This infinite decree will never cease until 
man universal bears testimony, "And there was 
Light," for he is eternally becoming conscious of 
the Light that was, is, and evermore shall be, the 
eternal Knowing of God. 

From his initial impulse to comprehend himself, 
man has always been working out his salvation. He 
has thus far worked out his own body, and this 
process must continue until a perfect spiritual body 
is attained — one that is responsive to a wish of the 
soul and perfectly expressive of it. When Darwin 
gave to the world the "Origin of Species," we dis- 
covered the method through which the human body 
developed in the consciousness of man. Later 
Henry Drummond in the "Ascent of Man" enabled 
us to feel the Cosmic Purpose through evolution, 
revealing it as spiritual unfoldment into the divine 
Ideal. 



CONSCIOUSNESS 121 

Before evolution there must of necessity be in- 
volution. Before man can unfold to his own con- 
sciousness he must have an existence. This exis- 
tence is in God's consciousness, and His purpose is 
to draw us up through successive stages of unfold- 
ment into the consciousness of ourselves that He 
has of us. His demand for us is that we know as 
we are known. Involution is God's work for man ; 
all that man is, his body, his work, his supply of 
every good is in this Idea of him as God knows him. 
Man has already received all that he is capable of 
ever desiring ; so the great Teacher knew whereof he 
spake when he told us to believe that we had re- 
ceived and we should have it. All good has been 
placed to our credit in the Universal Bank, the 
consciousness of God. Evolution is man's work 
for God, for man works out spiritual creation as 
he becomes conscious of it. 

The parable of the talents is a striking picture 
of the insight of Jesus into this process. With bold 
originality he portrayed God as an usurer, demand- 
ing His own, doubly increased. God having pro- 
vided the "Image" for man, nothing less than the 
likeness of that Image will be acceptable to Him. 
The body, the work, the conditions of life must be 
as perfect as they are in His Consciousness, nothing 
less may we bring before Him. It is useless to 
plead, cajole or sulk; we shall be received only as 
we do the work confronting us. We must work out 
our salvation. *Tf thou doest well, shalt thou not 
be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at 
the door. And unto thee shall be its desire, but 
thou shouldst have ruled over it." The Way- 



122 TRUTH AND LIFE 

Shower in the resurrection was accepted, and the 
divine Investor will take nothing less from you or 
me. We have had the revelation of the great pur- 
pose, and he who sees is already nine points in pos- 
session of it. 

The Body of Man. — Man's body is the sum total 
of his own recorded insights; he may change his 
body through a clearer perception of the divine 
model into a more perfect one. The belief of solid 
materiality which we once called terra firma is gone, 
dissipated by our clearing vision as the mist disap- 
pears in the rays of the sun. Nothing is established 
but the God idea of creation; all else is flux. The 
human body is our own thought of body manifest. 
A spiritual body will still be our thought manifest, 
but it will be one which is representative of Reality. 
When all men are conscious of the spiritual uni- 
verse, the Biblical **end of the world" will be an 
actually accomplished fact. A "material'' body and 
a "material" world are absolutely dependent upon 
our belief in them as material. They have no other 
existence. The destruction of our belief in them as 
material is the end of all materiality. A spiritual 
concept of creation is an insight into the substance 
creation of Spirit and we see "a new heaven and 
a new earth." 

Man is not in the body which we see with sense 
eyes ; he is above it in God Mind, in a perfect spir- 
itual body which is his eternal identity. The flesh 
body is the result of the belief that the body is 
material ; if it is injured the real man is not affected. 
To know this is to have dominion over the flesh. 
"The flesh profiteth nothing; it is the Spirit that 



CONSCIOUSNESS 123 

quickeneth.*' This body is absolutely created and 
governed by the consciousness of its possessor. Of 
itself, it can be neither sick nor well; of itself, it 
cannot be at all ; it is sustained entirely by our con- 
sciousness of it. From beginning to end it is in our 
consciousness only, composed of our own visualized 
thoughts. 

Man is not in the flesh body; he is super-body. 
Man is a consciousness of spiritual powers and 
functions having an inherent capacity to know God. 
A material concept can never be a true manifesta- 
tion of body. When we grasp the fact that body is 
within the consciousness and is the result of our 
own thinking, we can readily perceive that it is 
changed by our change of thought. The body of 
man is an orderly record of what he has discovered 
about himself and his original functions and powers. 
By this we mean the original thought of God con- 
cerning him. The body ends man "downward,'* and 
through it his unity with the race and its achieve- 
ments is established. We are not only spiritually 
at one with all men, but we are also in unison with 
them through our common evolution. We hold in 
common the conscious and sub-conscious race be- 
liefs about life. There are ways of communication 
with each other which are entirely independent of 
the objective mind. A belief that we can receive 
a thought or know a circumstance, brings us en 
rapport with it. The mentality appropriates its 
knowledge as the roots of the tree absorb the nutri- 
ment and moisture from the soil. 

Direct Knowledge, — Being in and of the race, we 
have access to all that is within its thought. There 



124 TRUTH AND LIFE 

are soul insights as there are body senses. The 
senses are held by our belief in the faculties; soul 
insight is governed in the same manner. Thus John 
said of Jesus, "And needed not that any should 
testify of man; for he knew what was in man.'' He 
read the thoughts of others far more easily than 
we read books, for soul reading is an instantaneous 
process. In a manner incomprehensible to the ob- 
jective mind, we know what we will to know in soul 
insight, and this with a definiteness and conviction 
that the objective mind never attains. 

In conscious unity with God we have access to 
His Mind above our consciousness. We open up 
into it; it discloses itself to us as revelation, as we 
maintain the believing, receiving attitude towards 
Him. We possess God, His ideas, power and knowl- 
edge, just to the extent that we permit Him to 
possess us. The ideas of Infinite Mind come to 
our consciousness as we keep in conscious contact 
with it. Thus we become aware of Reality, and 
all that IS true and real in our lives is so because 
based in this established Consciousness. "The ulti- 
mate test of Reality is persistence." Whatever man 
does, wherever he goes, this eternal Presence re- 
bukes his errors, establishes him in its truths, and 
refuses to let him be satisfied until he consciously 
and intelligently comprehends and interprets it. 

It is by means of this ability to appropriate Mind 
and Power that man has worked out his inventions, 
his arts and his civilizations. It is the scientific 
method of prayer given by the spiritual expert, Jesus 
of Nazareth. By believing that we have, we receive ; 
by believing that we can accomplish, we achieve. 



CONSCIOUSNESS 125 

An object must be exposed to a ray of light in the 
camera obscura until impressed, and a truth per- 
ceived must be firmly held until established in con- 
sciousness. 

This method of attainment has been and is used 
in an inverted way. When we believe in adverse 
conditions we receive them through identically the 
same means by which we receive our benefits. The 
sub-conscious mind records the beliefs which con- 
scious mind accepts unquestioningly, regardless of 
their beneficence or detriment to the possessor. We 
record in our examination papers our ideas and we 
pass onward, or are retained in a grade, in direct 
ratio to the accuracy or inaccuracy of our work. 
The only possible means for advancement is to know 
our subject matter and to write out our exercises 
correctly. Advancement in freedom is the Truth 
we record in the sub-conscious, for all of our in- 
stinctive impulses are from sub-conscious re-action 
upon consciousness. 

Truth Knowledge Necessary to Freedom, — The 
body of man is governed by the sub-conscious mind. 
We do not know consciously how the heart beats, 
how the lungs receive air, how food is digested and 
assimilated, or how an idea is recorded. Yet every 
development of normal growth, physical, mental, or 
spiritual, has passed through the consciousness into 
the sub-conscious. Automatically we receive an im- 
pression ; just as automatically the impression is re- 
corded, and from this moment we are governed 
by this belief, be it true or false. Hence the abso- 
lute necessity of knowing the Truth. When gov- 
erned by Truth we are free, for freedom is the 



126 TRUTH AND LIFE 

expression of our spiritual nature. When governed 
by a false belief, the spiritual nature has no outlet 
through our consciousness, and remains unex- 
pressed. 

Some curious cases are on record of sub-con- 
scious impressions and communications which are 
short circuited and pass into the sub-conscious with- 
out the cognizance of the objective mind. Blind 
Tom could reproduce on the piano any air which he 
had once heard. A woman in delirium repeated 
Latin recitations correctly, yet knew nothing of the 
language. It was discovered that in youth she had 
frequently heard a Catholic priest read his breviary. 
These cases are abnormal and, not being the usual 
educational method of procedure, will be but lightly 
touched upon here. They are of value for they 
acquaint us with the fact that there are easier ways 
of learning than our present system would lead us 
to believe. 

Maeterlinck asserts, in "The Horses of Elber- 
feld," that the solution is always with the problem, 
hence the horses perceive the solution of a mathe- 
matical problem and give it. Mathematical prodi- 
gies, then, are cases of pure spiritual perceiving. 
For those who have discernment, there is a wealth 
of insight to be gained from these peculiar incidents, 
for in the midst of every problem which confronts 
the human race, physical, mental, financial, social, 
stands the absolute solution in the eternal Knowing 
of God. When we train the sight to look past the 
blackboard upon which we have recorded our sense 
impressions, when we cease to listen in that whis- 
pering gallery which echoes the limitations, doubts, 



CONSCIOUSNESS 127 

fears and ignorance of the sub-conscious beliefs of 
the race, we shall have "the eyes that see'' and "the 
ears that hear/' Spiritual discernment penetrates 
the kingdom that we must perceive and record in 
its beauty and integrity. This process is so simple 
that Jesus thanked the Father that he had "hidden 
it from the wise and prudent and revealed it unto 
babes." The holden eyes and ears are freed as we 
believingly open to God Consciousness and let it 
possess us. Then the solution of every problem 
comes to us unerringly. 

The Crux of the Christian Revelation, — Failure 
to perceive Truth leaves a blank for evil, and then 
one is the subject and not the master of the situa- 
tion. Ignorance is a vacuum to be filled with knowl- 
edge. Train the consciousness to know its power ; 
it is King and must allow no thought to enter his 
domain unchallenged. The work of eliminating the 
false beliefs which we have ignorantly registered in 
the sub-conscious and of establishing the Truth 
therein is the task that confronts the conscious mind. 
The wheat and tares are growing side by side. The 
wheat must be intelligently gathered into the 
granaries; the tares must be cast into the consum- 
ing fire of God's absolute perfection through which 
they will be totally destroyed. 

The body of man is the outcome of his conscious- 
ness. Legs and arms are his registered beliefs in 
his power of motion. Sight and hearing are neither 
in the optic nor the auditory nerves. These organs 
are the result of man's belief that he can see and 
hear. As the hearing and seeing become finer and 
truer, the organs will reflect the ideas by a more 



128 TRUTH AND LIFE 

refined appearance than they at present possess. 
Man's faculties are all inherent in Divine Mind, and 
are eternally perfect. Whatever God has given us 
is ours eternally. It has been claimed that if a 
lobster loses a leg it thinks one again which con- 
sequently grows one. Man's apparent fall lies in 
placing the function in the organ, instead of know- 
ing that the functions existed before the organs; 
and are placed where they can never be lost, for 
God holds them in His Consciousness in absolute 
security. 

One who can perceive the inviolability of spir- 
itual man, and the permanency of his functions will 
heal any disease. When we are conscious of the 
perfection of our faculties a disease cannot exist. 
Train the thought to think of the ideas of which the 
body is composed and the organs will be far more 
responsive and perfect. The speaker or the writer 
thinks his ideas, and the expression naturally fol- 
lows. Ideas mold their own form. Thus the con- 
viction of sight as a spiritual function will correct 
any apparent condition of the eye-ball. So the con- 
viction of hearing as a permanent faculty inherent 
in the principle of man which can neither be im- 
paired nor lost will keep the auditory nerves in 
perfect repair. Think of every faculty in the whole 
body as a spiritual power, and the body will be a 
perfect instrument. 

Paul entreats, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, 
by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a 
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which 
is your reasonable service." The crux of the Chris- 
tian revelation is that man is not subject to any out- 



CONSCIOUSNESS 129 

side disaster. Disaster lies in the belief that man 
is in a material body and that anything that occurs 
to the body can afifect him. Man is an ideal in the 
consciousness of God, and as safe as is the perfect 
Consciousness in which his being is held. 

The perception of this Truth makes us free. To 
locate power or function in God consciousness will, 
as the race progresses, enable us to grow an organ 
if one appears to be lost. To lose an eye, an ear or 
an arm means that we have lost our particular regis- 
try of that function ; but to know that we have the 
opportunity to make another registry through our 
insight and ability opens vistas of spiritual moun- 
tains yet to be climbed by man. With God all things 
are possible. We are Christians if we see and 
have commenced believingly to apply these great 
principles. 

Spiritual Healing. — We cannot escape our Good, 
because God's perfect idea of man continues until 
man receives this idea of himself. We have never 
been alone, for God's insistent thought of each, in- 
dividually, has stood in its spiritual poise and in- 
tegrity through all the agony, sin, and weakness of 
human evolution. Whenever man has turned to 
God with faith in his love and power, he has never 
failed to triumph, regardless of the seeming odds 
against him. Truth perceived illumines every sor- 
row and overthrows every evil. God's ideas break 
into the consciousness of man more readily in his 
utter weakness than at any other time, for, as Paul 
says, "When I am weak then am I strong." When 
we are confronted with a task which we instinctively 
know is beyond human power, we turn to Omnipo- 



I30 TRUTH AND LIFE 

tence intuitively as the child turns to its mother. 

Spiritual healing is based on scientific law. It is 
the recognition of man as God is conscious of him. 
The man whom God knows is perfect; but the 
patient's concept of his true self is for the time 
obliterated. The practitioner takes possession of 
the situation by virtue of the same law which enables 
the stronger light to take possession of a room, over 
a lesser light. Healing can result only as the prac- 
titioner is more positive of his Truth than the patient 
is of his error. "Let this mind be in you which was 
also in Christ Jesus.'' There is but One Mind and 
it knows Truth only, and when we let it possess our 
consciousness we see ourselves and all creation as 
perfect. The Omniscient holds man within Him- 
self, knowing the eternal Real of him, which is all 
there is to know. 

We continuously reproduce our own beliefs of 
life, for our beliefs govern our external lives. Our 
bodies and experiences are externalized records of 
our thoughts. The trunk we have packed with our 
own hands holds no surprises for us. All that is 
in the sub-conscious we have placed there. Much 
is to be eliminated, much to be spiritualized. Even 
at its best and highest, the human insight into body 
is not positive. Spiritual illumination in regard to 
it is the superlative degree, and when we have this, 
the mind is no longer what we know as human but 
is Divine. 

The Sway of the Sub-Conscious. — Our spiritual, 
mental and physical equipment is revealing our most 
secret thoughts. Man's thought is his proclamation 
of himself and it stands either as his justification 



CONSCIOUSNESS 131 

or as his condemnation. Each has judged himself 
and all may read the verdict, for it is written in 
body, character and environment. 

We are our own bookkeepers, and the ledger with 
its debits and credits is open to all. The race has 
made many false entries. Dante's ability to read 
the record of human thought is given in the '^Divine 
Comedy." Hell is sin manifest and places each in 
his individual class of sinners. Our aspirations put 
us upon our own particular stair of the Purgatorio. 
Our virtue selects its own fecial planet in the 
Paradiso. Each is responsible for his own position, 
be it heaven or hell, the position being merely our 
recorded conceptions about life. If thinking has 
been untrue, one is bound by it in hell ; if it has been 
spiritual, one is a free citizen of heaven. 

"I sent my Soul through the Invisible 
Some letter of that After-life to spell: 
And by and by my Soul returned to me. 
And answered, 1 myself, am heav'n and Hell.'" 

It is impossible to understand man, or the condi- 
tions in which he finds himself and the work con- 
fronting him, until we understand the super-con- 
scious, sub-conscious and conscious realms of his 
being. We prate of freedom, but man is swayed 
by what he has registered in the sub-conscious. It 
is the trend of this which influences every decision 
and choice that he makes. The man who is selfish 
can with difficulty be generous and do the noble 
self-sacrificing act. The woman who has always 
thought purely is not the one who is "led astray," 
for she is able to resist temptation and to stand 
secure. 



132 TRUTH AND LIFE 

This IS very patent in hypnosis. It is a known 
fact that a virtuous man or woman cannot be made 
to fall while under control. An established convic- 
tion is immune; it resists outside influence. The 
reason why Truth makes us free is that we stand in 
immutable principle and cannot be deflected from 
it. We conceal nothing, for every thought, true or 
false, is reproduced by immutable law. 

Cleansing the Sub-Conscious. — In the sub-con- 
scious mind are held the mistakes or errors of the 
race. A phonographic record reproduces an error 
with the same faithfulness with which it reproduces 
a truth. Thus with the sub-jective mind — if pov- 
erty, incompetence and sin are written there, it con- 
tinues to reproduce these conditions until corrected. 
Only the understanding of the one receiving the 
Truth does the corrective work of destroying the 
power of these conditions over him. One cannot 
believe a truth and a falsehood at the same time. 
As the truth enters consciousness, the error is cor- 
rected. 

The conscious mind is action, and in the sub- 
conscious mind the re-action is absolutely equal to 
the expression of the idea received by the conscious 
mind. Every condition which is accepted as fact by 
consciousness is automatically recorded and just as 
automatically reproduced by the sub-conscious. It 
will carry out a belief in a malignant disease to its 
ultimate conclusion, the death of the body. It will 
culminate in eternal life as it did in the case of 
Jesus in the mighty climax of the resurrection. 
When this is perceived, the absolute necessity of 
knowing the Truth and eliminating the false beliefs 



CONSCIOUSNESS 133 

IS borne in upon consciousness. We cannot be rid of 
an evil so long as it is retained by the sub-conscious. 
The only escape from ills is to cease to retain false 
beliefs which control our individual expression. 
Sin is much deeper than a mere moral infraction, 
much wider than that which has been known by the 
term. It is every belief that is not true of our 
spiritual nature, every thought that falls short of 
the God idea. 

The evils of sin and disease can only be cast out 
by eliminating the false beliefs we have ignorantly 
registered in the sub-conscious. A devil is an evil 
belief which controls the one who believes in it as 
power or reality. An insight into Truth destroys 
the effect which evil has over us by eradicating the 
belief itself. God cannot think in terms of sin or 
imperfection and His eternal, perfect Conscious- 
ness persists until we become aware of it and there- 
by destroy the hold of sin over us. Evil is actually 
a vacancy in man's consciousness and not a thing in 
itself. If we are ignorant or incompetent, we have 
not filled the consciousness with ability, knowledge 
and power. If we are poor, we have not become 
conscious of divine substance. If we are unhappy, 
we have not become aware of the joyous mind of 
the Creator. 

We are awakening from hypnotic sense beliefs to 
the freedom of God consciousness. As a blind man 
on receiving his sight can become aware of objects 
only by continuing to gaze upon things about him, 
thus absorbing his surroundings into his conscious- 
ness, so we receive idea upon idea from God, "Pre- 
cept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and 



134 TRUTH AND LIFE 

there a little." As Jesus graphically describes it, 
the new consciousness comes like "a thief in the 
night." Without announcement of any kind, we 
become aware of a Presence which holds us within 
its own perfect Consciousness; and we know that 
we are forever beyond materiality and disaster, our 
lives eternally hid with Christ in God. 

One who sees what Jesus saw and remains faith- 
ful to the Vision will do what Jesus did. This is a 
simpler process than many think it to be. Jesus 
never asked anything of his disciples but **Believest 
thou ?" Actually to believe in God is the destruction 
of everything that is unlike Him. We struggle and 
strive, but the way to Heaven is always that given 
by the good bishop, who when asked simply replied, 
"Turn to the right and go straight ahead." Turn 
to spiritual Reality and definitely, intelligently, pur- 
posefully, make all thinking conform to it and eradi- 
cate every belief that is unlike God. 

Signs follow those who believe. The writers of 
this book have had years of spiritual experience in 
healing work and can say with absolute certainty 
that every time the Real is in consciousness, the 
errors of sense with their consequent train of sick- 
ness and inharmony are destroyed. No material 
means for healing disease is necessary to the one 
who is spiritually illumined. When we are con- 
scious of Reality, the healing is accomplished, all 
is perfect. It is thus that sense errors are destroyed 
by the conviction of perfection. 

The only power sin and sickness have is invested 
in them through the believer who believes them to 
be real. Nothing is real except that which is in the 



CONSCIOUSNESS 135 

perfect consciousness of God. The sub-conscious 
beliefs in sin and sickness must be cleared, as the 
forest land of the Northwest is cleared of the roots 
and trees which fill its surface ground. *'The earth 
of itself bringeth forth increase/' but no farmer 
trusts to that increase. He clears the ground to 
plant therein the crop that he desires. Before it 
is possible to have spiritual life and its natural corol- 
lary of life, love, competence, substance and peace, 
it is essential to destroy all beliefs in materiality, 
sin and disease. 

The Fruits of the Spirit, — Jesus revealed man's 
possibilities. He walked in Omnipresence, he 
thought in Omniscience, he worked in Omnipotence. 
When the morning of spiritual illumination breaks, 
we learn to cast our nets on the right side of the 
boat. Materialism is the night of sense and its 
increase is after its kind; but in the morning light 
we cast our nets on the right side of Principle, and 
how sure we are of results^ — health, love, ability, 
understanding, supply! Receiving the gifts of the 
Spirit we are changed. The sub-conscious beliefs in 
materialism are destroyed, and in their place stands 
the knowledge of spiritual Reality which is freedom. 

To identify ourselves continuously with the God 
idea will enable us to see with the single eye of 
Spirit, and thus the body will be full of light. Then 
into our consciousness we will receive that perfect 
idea of man which is held in the super-conscious 
realm, awaiting our reception of it. Spiritual train- 
ing consists in remembering Truth, for the whole 
education of man is to bring to consciousness the 
things which he has always known in the spiritual 



136 TRUTH AND LIFE 

realm. We have come down from heaven, and up to 
heaven we must return as we pray with Jesus: 
"And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with thine 
own self with the glory which I had with thee be- 
fore the world was." 



CHAPTER VIII 

HEALING. 

Agnes M. Lawson. 

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath an- 
nointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent 
me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the 
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at lib- 
erty them that are bruised. — Luke 4:18. 

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out 
devils: freely ye have received, freely give. — Matt. 10:8. 

The Kingdom Work. — Christianity is a definite 
method of living and working. Like the house- 
holder who on purchasing a home immediately pro- 
ceeds to "set his house in order/* the first thing that 
we do when we find the Kingdom, is to set our 
thought home in order. George MacDonald said 
that in heaven we work exactly opposite to the way 
we work on earth. Earth is that condition of 
thought in which we work for self ; heaven is a state 
of consciousness in which we work for the race. 
Christianity being the revelation of the Fatherhood 
of God and the brotherhood of man, no one can be 
alien to another and be a Christian. In fact nothing 
in the universe is alien to us when we have found 
God and His Kingdom. 

There being One God, when we spiritually dis- 
cover Him, we perceive the unity of the race be- 

137 



138 TRUTH AND LIFE 

cause of the inter-relation of God and man. He is 
the best Christian who best knows and best applies 
Truth principles, and to whose record is appended 
the greatest amount of healing from sin and disease 
irrespective of church affiliation. The command to 
heal is as imperative as the command to preach the 
Gospel; the two cannot be separated. In fact the 
"good news'* which constitutes the Gospel is that 
the race is not subject to either sin or disease. With 
its failure to heal came the fall of the Christian 
Church from its original purpose. As Jesus 
preached his Gospel, he expounded his meaning 
through healing demonstrations. We come back to 
original Christianity as we restore healing to its 
relation with Gospel preaching. 

Healing is a big word, and rightly understood 
covers all the needs of man. It is the re-instate- 
ment into the Kingdom of God. Awakening to the 
real, we find material existence was but a dream. 
When we discover the spirituality of man we shake 
ofif mortal lethargy. We find as we look about us 
that others are awakening, in fact that "the whole 
creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together 
until now. And not they, but ourselves also, which 
have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we groan 
within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, 
the redemption of our body." We find that we have 
been waiting for this event, groping for it as the 
one thing that gives meaning to an existence that 
otherwise is meaningless. "God expresses in man 
the infinite idea forever developing itself, broaden- 
ing and rising higher and higher from a boundless 
basis." The discovery of this "idea," our real selves, 



HEALING 139 

IS true healing — for the body is in this idea, and 
eternally perfect. 

A Day of Cosmic Consciousness, — For one per- 
fect day the present writer lived in the spiritual 
consciousness. It was on a glorious morning in 
California that the experience occurred. I was 
"caught up" as Paul expresses it, and "unspeakable" 
things were revealed. I awakened with a conviction 
of God's presence, in all and through all and about 
all. This conviction was so deep and all-pervading 
that all other thoughts about life were as though 
they had never been. I was "absent from the body 
and present with God." I had no sense of body 
weight ; there was a buoyant and luminous creation, 
and I was of it. A wonderful light and lightness 
suffused the whole; and all creation seemed joined 
in a rhythmic anthem of praise and joy. The birds 
sang a pean of appreciation — as an audible choir 
in an audible Silence. It was an intoxication of 
joy, and it was as if I were a guest at Creation's 
dawn, which also was its completion, for in Reality 
there is no interval. I looked into the soul of all 
beings and they, being aware of mine, the com- 
munion was perfect. My consciousness was sub- 
merged under a Consciousness of pure Knowing. 

In the middle of the forenoon a woman came to 
see me who had her arm in a sling. She showed me 
her wrist on which was a large lump. She said it 
had pained her for a month, and the previous night 
she had been unable to sleep or relax for a moment. 
A sense of astonishment swept over me. How could 
any one for a moment think pain or imperfection in 
the riot of joy and the absolute perfection that per- 



140 TRUTH AND LIFE 

vaded the whole universe? Immediately the convic- 
tion seized my consciousness that God being every- 
where, perfection was in that wrist. Instantly she 
threw up her arm in amazement, the lump had dis- 
appeared. This all occurred in a far shorter time 
than it takes to write it. 

No other healing was the result of my "perfect 
day." I wandered off to the woods, an impelling 
desire to be alone in vast open spaces carrying me 
thither. All through the day I was held by the 
conviction that the woman who had been healed, 
would return the next day and talk with me. All 
had seemed so natural during the short visit that 
little had been said. It seemed to be a communion 
between her soul and mine, and the next morning 
she came. "I just must talk about that miracle," 
she said. The pity of it was, that what had been so 
wondrously natural and inevitable to me the day be- 
fore, was now a miracle, because I was back again 
in human mis-conception. 

A Glimpse to Lure to Full Realization. — Through- 
out the intervening years I have had but one goal — 
spiritual illumination — the divine event towards 
which the whole creation moves. One thing I know 
with a conviction that can never be shaken — ^there 
is no material creation. In mortal thought we see 
nothing but our own conceptions manifested, and 
these are actually misconceptions of that Creation 
which is ever present filling all with its perfection. 
The method through which the Master worked was 
revealed to me; the necessity of His transition was 
also clear. Any one who can retain Cosmic Con- 
3ciousness lives in a realm above that of sense con- 



HEALING 141 

sciousness, for he is above its limitation. It is not 
a difference in location, but a difference of condi- 
tion. In my own case my sense consciousness was 
not destroyed, it wa*? merely submerged for the 
time. There still remains for me to eliminate the 
fixed race beliefs of materiality. 

Many healings have been the fruit of my min- 
istry, some of them instantaneous, some after work- 
ing weeks, months and years, but not once since 
"my perfect day'' has healing been so unlabored 
and natural. Many times I have been conscious 
that it was the faith of the patients themselves which 
healed them; many times I have been conscious of 
kindling that faith in them. It is neither the prac- 
titioner who heals another, nor the patient who heals 
himself. Healing is the entrance of the God thought 
so that Truth governs instead of the mortal belief. 
Faith is the Mind of God holding our conscious- 
ness. It is useless to endeavor to "hold a thought*' ; 
this is self-hypnosis. We must ask God to come in 
with his perfect thought and hold our conscious- 
ness. We must ask Him to think in our con- 
sciousness. So long as we "hold a thought" we are 
not perceiving the principle; the perception of a 
principle holds the consciousness in such a manner 
that the thought holds us. Healing is something we 
receive, through humility and receptivity. Faith 
is the one means to bring the God Ideas into con- 
sciousness, and the entrance of these Ideas auto- 
matically destroys the false beliefs previously held. 
It is impossible to be aware of any imperfection and 
be conscious of Grod at the same time. The per- 
ception of Truth is the destruction of error. 



142 TRUTH AND LIFE 

Curing and Healing, — There are many cases of 
curing disease which are not spiritual healing. Spir- 
itual healing is the change of thought which must 
occur when we perceive the real of another by see- 
ing him in God. Curing may result from the elimi- 
nation of some one disturbing thought. The normal 
sub-consciousness of the race is health, and we have 
but to live optimistically in normal human thought 
to be healthy in an animal sense. It is claimed that 
a large majority of insane people are healthy, and 
that even those who were ill before they became in- 
sane gain health with the mental disorder. Insanity 
places one under the sub-conscious functioning of 
the race. It is the fears, doubts, sins and fixed 
beliefs of the conscious mind which are the most 
prolific causes of disease. When the coherence and 
vitality of these thoughts are destroyed, the inter- 
ference with natural health is removed. Natural 
health, however, is not spiritual health. Spiritual 
health springs from a conscious knowledge of the 
principles of life, an awareness of the Presence of 
God. 

Undoubtedly a large amount of healing done even 
by spiritually minded people is mental; by which I 
mean that much healing is the result of suggestion. 
If the disturbing thought is destroyed in a patient, 
in any manner whatsoever, the disease must be cured, 
for disease by whatever name you call it is a belief 
held in consciousness. This is not spiritual heal- 
ing, however, for this can only be the result of 
receiving another Mind than that which we know 
as human. Spiritual healing is a complete revolu- 
tion of the life and character so that we have actu- 



HEALING 143 

ally left mortal thought, and it is impossible for us 
to think from that basis again. It is connecting 
one's self with the Source, so that the whole con- 
sciousness is renewed. A disease is a mental pic- 
ture objectified in the body ; so that when the thought 
is destroyed the body cannot hold the disease for 
a fraction of a second. "The flesh profiteth noth- 
ing, it is the Spirit (idea) that quickeneth." The 
body is all thought-formed; if the thought be right 
the body is right. 

Trust Healing. — Another class of healing which 
is largely used is called faith healing. Personally, 
faith is too large a word for me to use save for the 
luminous healing of Spiritual Consciousness; this 
was its original high significance. Therefore for 
the purpose of clarity I will use the word trust heal- 
ing for all of that kind of healing which is the result 
of spiritual prayer, but which has not back of it a 
conscious understanding of the nature of man and 
of the universe. Healing has never been totally 
lost since the Christian era, for those who have be- 
lieved in the efficacy of prayer all through the ages 
have had results to the extent of that belief. Since 
it is only through personal experience that we actu- 
ally learn the law, I will give an example of what 
I mean by trust healing. 

The case occurred several years later than my 
cosmic experience and on a day when I felt very 
ill. I had been sleeping in a room in which was a 
gas grate which leaked. It was summer time and 
as the windows were always open I neglected to 
have it attended to, with the consequence that on 
this particular day I felt very sick, but was uncon- 



144 TRUTH AND LIFE 

scious of the cause. The door bell rang, and as no 
one else was near I opened the door. A stranger 
stood before me. He handed me a note, addressed 
to myself, and signed by a friend, in which I was 
asked to give the man, her brother, a treatment. 

I felt immediately the impossibility of giving a 
treatment in my condition. I was conscious of my 
body to such a degree that it seemed a leaden weight, 
and although it was mid-summer I was very cold. 
Then the thought came to me in a flash : it is not you 
who heal, but God. I invited the man in and he 
stated his case. He had been suffering from a pain 
in his back for a year, and had been to regular phy- 
sicians and osteopaths without avail. He called his 
trouble a "leaking nerve." I had never heard of 
such a thing before nor have I since, and I have 
never sought to inquire if there were such a disease 
known to the medical fraternity. 

I told the man that I would give him a treatment, 
and explained that it would be a silent prayer, as he 
knew nothing of metaphysics. Then I was con- 
scious of saying, "God, you must heal this man, for 
I cannot give him a treatment." Then my mind be- 
came focused, that in my helplessness God would 
do as I asked Him. How long we remained in the 
silence I do not know, but when I spoke the man 
said, "I had a peculiar sensation as though a million 
electric needles were pricking me." He was com- 
pletely cured. I use the word advisedly, for he was 
not, so far as I could judge, in the least changed 
spiritually. I returned to this place four years later 
and he had had no recurrence of the disease. 

This latter experience was as different from the 



HEALING 145 

day of illumination as could be, yet under both ex- 
periences, wide apart though they seem, the same 
thing occurred. In both cases the self for the time 
being was eliminated. In the one case it was sub- 
merged, in the other an instinctive trust for the time 
being held all other thought in abeyance. The first 
case was the faith the Master told us to have, not 
faith in God but the faith of God, and nothing short 
of this is what he meant by faith. When we are de- 
feated it is the self, or more correctly the false be- 
lief about self, which blocks the passage. Power 
is ours only as we are able to destroy all sense of 
anything but God. Pure faith is the One Conscious- 
ness, thinking its Truths in our consciousness. 

Spiritual Healing is Being Born Again. — Spir- 
itual healing changes the thought and character, so 
that one is constrained to speak in different terms 
of the curing which brings one merely under normal 
race thought. In the beginning of my ministry I 
was much surprised to gain such quick results from 
the less spiritual people. The results gained by 
those who are the least spiritual are gained because 
their desires and aspirations are less complicated. 
The height of their desires is health, the adjustment 
of their aflFairs, and their supply. "The children of 
this world are in their generation wiser than the 
children of light.'* There being no higher ideal there 
are no conflicting emotions; therefore they work 
definitely and in a straight line. These people are 
called practical by those who see only the superficial 
conditions of life. 

The radical change which occurs when we are 
born into the spiritual life, the searching analysis 



146 TRUTH AND LIFE 

to which we subject our motives in order to make 
them conform to the spiritual ideal, necessarily com- 
plicate the mental condition. An acquaintance with 
God is then more essential than anything in the 
external life. The desire for things is submerged 
in the desire for spiritual adjustment. When this 
supreme aspiration holds the consciousness, we find 
"Our God is a consuming fire'' ; for all that is not of 
God is swept away. The spiritual man must adjust 
all of his thinking before his thought is as definite 
as it was before the "great event" occurred to him. 

In our earth experience we contract many debts, 
and when we come into the Spirit we challenge every 
debt and debtor, in order to pay and be free.^ We 
therefore find that in losing our old lives we lose 
also the old conditions and circumstances. All things 
become new. Personally, this was my experience;, 
not a vestige of the old life seemed to be left. Noth- 
ing seemed to matter but getting right with God; 
therefore neither healing nor the adjustment of my 
affairs was quickly accomplished. I had to find 
myself in this new world, learn its laws, and dis- 
cover its conditions. The children of light, in their 
intense desire to base their lives on spiritual princi- 
ples, must needs take time to achieve this. 

However, those people who adjust their lives to 
spiritual principles are the real, practical people. 
The shortest distance between two points still re- 
mains the straight line, which is the discernment of 
principles. The earth people only "seem to have." 
That man alone possesses who has the spiritual 
reality of the thing, which is the God idea of it. 
Any accident or disturbance in the thinking of one 



HEALING 147, 

who does not comprehend spiritual principles can 
destroy his possessions. Not so with him who pos- 
sesses the true idea; his are "treasures laid up in 
heaven"; they are established in consciousness. 

Healing is obtaining the single eye which makes 
the body full of light, and the affairs transparent 
and beautiful. Healing is the revealing of the per- 
fect body through the revelation of the Kingdom. 
Healing is the discovery of our original selves, 
through the disclosure of the original meaning of 
God for us. Order is the prime essential of the 
spiritual life, and we find that our place in life is 
in the expression of the ideal which we are in In- 
finite Mind. ^ The moment the disclosure of our 
work is made, the life is healed in the richest sense 
of the word. It is restoration to the spiritual world 
and reinstatement in divine order. 

Entering into Power. — The result of this rein- 
statement is spiritual efficiency. Efficiency is defined 
by the dictionary as the state of possessing adequate 
skill or knowledge for the performance of a duty 
or calling. By an inclusive vision of an omnipres- 
ent spiritual world, where each one is to some degree 
receiving light and power, we extend our knowledge 
in observing the demonstrations of others. Effi- 
ciency is developed by doing the thing which con- 
fronts us, and doing it so well that we have the 
consciousness of having put forth our best effort. 
Not a duty can be side-tracked ! To meet and heal 
every condition along the way by drawing on spir- 
itual power is to keep in a living stream of life and 
love. •. 

There is immense spiritual value and discipline in 



148 TRUTH AND LIFE 

praying with another. While we are praying with 
another we must think of him in the right way. 
We cannot pray for another without coming into 
right relation with him. "Again I say unto you, 
that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching 
anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them 
of my Father which is in heaven.'' It is this which 
makes the healing practice of such immense value; 
it aids both practitioner and patient to come into 
unison in Mind. Agreements must all be made in 
the One Mind; therefore we come together in it 
and lose our false beliefs through it. Everything 
is desirable that helps to eliminate mortal thought. 

To love is the ability to heal and to perform tasks, 
to undergo fatigue, to meet conditions of exposure 
in a manner far beyond the limits of those who 
have not made the contact with Spirit. To love is 
to rise out of the limitations of selfishness and to 
forget self. To heal others we must love them. 
When we are aflame with good will to another we 
have harnessed the Power of the universe to aid 
that other. Never have I had a case of healing 
without being conscious of love for that other. It is 
so intense a desire to relieve distress that the whole 
consciousness is focused to one point — giving. Thus 
we rise out of self and into the Mind of the Giver 
of All Good. 

Healing is the most normal thing in life when we 
think in spiritual terms. True healing is never an 
effort, it is the spontaneous love of which we are 
conscious when we realize God's Presence. Where 
God is, all is perfect, and every time we realize God 
we aid in the destruction of all that is unlike Him. 



HEALING 149 

The conviction of man as he exists in Infinite Mind 
is the only thought of which the practitioner is con- 
scious if he is successful in his practice. Eliminate 
the personality as far as possible, and see the spir- 
itual world where all are perfect. Let the conscious- 
ness be filled with the Real of mankind, not just one 
particular member who is to be healed, for no prayer 
which is effective is a private prayer. Every spir- 
itual treatment is the endeavor to destroy the whole 
race belief that anything but the Mind of a perfect 
God governs man. 

In receiving a treatment the patient inust turn the 
whole attention in expectation of receiving God's 
perfect thought which will destroy his own imperfect 
beliefs. He must expect not an outward but an 
inward healing. The patient should not ask, nor 
should the practitioner promise, physical healing. 
It distracts from the work that must be done in 
order to receive physical healing. It puts the cart 
before the horse and progress is impossible. Dis- 
ease is in thought registered in the body; its only 
existence is in thought. The body is powerless to 
hold a disease if the thought is destroyed which 
miscreated it, as the things that fill the universe are 
powerless to be save as the Infinite Thinker thinks 
them. 

We are a social body, and we do heal others and 
heal ourselves as we train ourselves to think in terms 
of Immortal Mind. Every time the Real is in con- 
sciousness we heal ; every time we think in terms of 
materiality we miscreate diseases of body and cir- 
cumstance. The only means whereby we can aid 
another is to think of him consistently and per- 



ISO TRUTH AND LIFE 

sistently as God thinks of him. After the treatment 
both practitioner and patient must continue to think 
as they thought during the treatment. Neither must 
ever descend from the thought estabhshed there no 
matter whether there is a visible healing or not. If 
the thought is continued, there inevitably must be 
the healing ; it is contrary to the laws of the universe 
for it to be otherwise. "In due time ye will reap if 
ye faint not/' said One who would accept no other 
thought than God's thought. 

Neither the body nor any organ of the body is 
treated by one who understands metaphysics. It is 
the faculties and powers of Mind that are treated; 
that is recognized. The writer knows a man who at 
sixty-five is reading the finest print. This man had 
from youth been near to total blindness, when the 
Light of Truth released his vision. His was a case 
of self healing. I asked him how he treated him- 
self. The simple reply is one of memory's most 
sacred treasures: "I know sight is a faculty in 
Divine Mind, and that it cannot be impaired or lost." 

This is the secret of healing — all of man's powers, 
all of man's faculties are in Divine Mind and always 
perfect. The body but registers our beliefs of those 
faculties and powers. Power is in no organ nor 
thing ; it is in Mind alone, and to get the insight into 
all of our powers and faculties would mean the re- 
demption of the body. The organ is in the thought, 
not the thought in the organ. The Master healed 
the withered arm by perceiving the perfect idea of 
arm, the capacity for movement and the ability to 
work and express himself inherent in the God Idea 
of man. Man always has free movement, nothing 



HEALING 151 

binds him but false thinking. Disease and sin are 
synonymous terms — to heal is to forgive sin, to for- 
give sin is to heal. It is all done through correcting 
the false beliefs about man into the Truth of his 
being. 

Life is a symphony. Some surge ahead regardless 
of the necessity for guidance, others lag behind de- 
void of initiative. We acquire in affiliation the poise 
and balance which enable us to work in unison. 
When we adjust ourselves to others, giving them our 
spiritual gains, receiving from them the insight in 
which they have outstripped us, in return, we are 
mutually helpful. Through this agreement with 
others we find the common meeting ground, the 
Mind in which we all have our being. The hermit 
can never reach the "measure of the stature of 
man." In isolation we cannot lose ourselves in 
service, neither giving nor gaining in consciousness 
through contact with others. All growth is depend- 
ent on stimuli — called love by the Master. 

Established character is the capacity to receive 
and the ability to obey. Those who have natural 
decision of character must guard against being too 
positive in their opinions; for spiritual man is not 
aggressive. He who has had spiritual revelation 
does not need to fight, he knows with certainty and 
he can well abide his time, until the revelation comes 
to others. It is useless to try to give life Truth to 
those who insist on fitting revelation into what is 
called the rationale of the human mind. As those 
who have crossed a stream we must patiently wait 
for others to do the same, in confidence of their 
ability because of their heritage. 



152 TRUTH AND LIFE 

Independence in the Kingdom. — The Kingdom of 
Heaven is a divine democracy. Citizenship in it 
depends upon the ability to live with each other on 
terms of equality. Equality is in the Consciousness 
of God alone, and through the healing ministry we 
meet in God's Consciousness. 

Again I will give an experience of my own, and 
this in receiving the healing. As my first healing 
had come through my personal study of the Bible, 
and applying its teachings as best I could, the con- 
viction had settled in my consciousness that no one 
could aid me. I had yet to learn that no one's life 
is independent, but that all lives are inter-dependent, 
and that we truly live by giving and receiving. We 
receive from and give to God ; we receive from and 
give to each other. This does not mean that we are 
not to have the character which enables us to stand 
upright with strength in our own convictions. The 
indecisive mind has not the power to affiliate with 
either God or man. 

It was, therefore, a great step forward in my 
spiritual unfoldment when I was able to yield my- 
self without reservation to a practitioner; and I 
had a wonderful healing. I had been working very 
hard in my own self-sufficiency. The old nervous 
tension under which all of my work had been done 
previous to my insight into Truth, had again crept 
upon me. When this occurs one is not working in 
the Spirit. The result of this was that I had what 
is called a severe accident. I have a very dear 
friend, a practitioner, and to her I gladly said, "I 
will rest in God and in my love and confidence in 
you." Details of disease are always undesirable 



HEALING 153 

matters on which to dwell, so that I will briefly 
state that in my case what would ordinarily have 
taken months to heal was accomplished in as many 
weeks. 

It has been my personal experience to know of 
many diseases, medically pronounced incurable, 
which were healed through knowledge of Truth. 
Among friends in both the Christian Science and 
New Thought movements, I know many cases of 
spiritual healing which cover approximately all the 
ordinary diseases known to modern medical science. 
Many cases have been what are called chronic and 
organic. They have not been limited to the one 
class of nervous diseases which the medical fra- 
ternity claim to be all that can be treated successfully 
by the spiritual method. In fact some of the best 
healing has been done when all that is known to 
medical skill has failed. 

The Open Door. — Spiritual healing is only in its 
infancy as yet. It has been rediscovered in its 
scientific principle in our day. All fair-minded peo- 
ple are glad to credit Mary Baker Eddy with the 
high honor of establishing its potency. No organi- 
zation or class of people can hold what is universally 
the heritage of every child of the eternal God. Spir- 
itual experiences are common in this age, and those 
alone who have seen the miracle of the "Open Door'' 
can consciously understand the Christ method of 
healing. Yet even those who have had the privilege 
of experiences which enable them to know at first 
hand the power of the Kingdom, are like men who 
are working consciously to gain the key to a com- 
bination lock; for although we have touched the 



154 TRUTH AND LIFE 

Real and experienced the miracle, it is not as yet 
done at will, and has been of rare occurrence. 

The symbol of the open door is a striking char- 
acteristic of the teaching of Jesus. The door is 
always open; but only through purification from 
material beliefs and desires are we able to approach 
it. Through this open door streams the Good Will 
which is the love of the Infinite Father. The life of 
Jesus is luminous because he always identified him- 
self with the spiritual and stood in that love. If 
we stand out in the world mist, we do not see the 
doorway and we fail to receive of the life streaming 
through it. My own experience enables me to know 
that the door is always open to give lovingly to the 
least of us, and that there is neither least nor great- 
est when illumined with that Love. 

The fact is that Christianity is this coming to the 
Open Door and standing in its Light. Healing is 
denied to him who asks only to be cured. These 
are they who desire the semblance of a thing and 
not the thing itself, and they must fall short of at- 
tainment. Never come in prayer to God asking for 
things. Ask for the true idea ; things are all ideas in 
God Mind. The God idea of anything is the thing 
itself. The substance of anything is that which 
stands under it, giving it dependability and perma- 
nence. If we have the God idea of body, we have 
the substance of health ; if we have the God idea of 
creation, we have convictions of permanency and 
spirituality. Swedenborg reports a spirit in heaven 
as saying : "Here in heaven all things are substantial 
and not material, we who live here are spiritual 
men, because we are substantial and not material." 



HEALING iSS 

To have health, supply and success based in the 
spiritual world is to have the real idea of them, and 
thus we have them as abidingly ours. When we 
have the true ideas, things are the outward manifes- 
tations of an inward grace. 

Standing in the light of the Open Door we are 
unconscious of desire. The intense sweep of hu- 
man wishes and longing is wasteful ; faith is always 
conservation and direction of the forces. The emo- 
tionalism of human love, its sorrows and intensities 
are lost in the calm conviction of unity. Human 
love is congestion ; we love some too much and others 
too little or not at all. Love evenly and equally 
distributed throughout the race is the healing of all 
the sorrows and disappointments due to miscalled 
love. Faith has ideal possession of all that exists. 
It knows no past nor looks forward to a future. 
It has been pertinently said that the Christ is daily 
crucified between two thieves — the past and the 
future. 

Renunciation. — A gate leads to this Open Door, 
and the Door is visible only to those who have passed 
through the gate. This gate is self-renunciation. 
"Everything cries out to us that we must renounce," 
said Goethe. We have looked upon Gethsemane as a 
place where all the joy went out of life, and thought 
of the Crucifixion as torture, but both are on the 
Way to the Light. The "son of man" must die, that 
the "Son of God" may come into his own. The 
mystic initiation of man into the power of the King- 
dom is the elimination of our false and materialistic 
beliefs of life. It is losing the self to find the 
Self. Virtually it is coming to one's self. 



IS6 TRUTH AND LIFE 

After we have experienced the Open Door, the 
desire for it can never be quenched. Hereafter we 
must live out of ourselves and in the Universal. It 
is as impossible to come back into the cramped con- 
fines of selfish isolation, as it would be for a chick 
to be confined within the egg again. In the narrow 
confines of self-interest we feel we cannot breathe, 
nor can any one deeply and richly inhale in its con- 
fined atmosphere. As the body is healthy only 
when the blood freely circulates through the length 
and breadth of it, so out in the universal life the 
free soul must vibrate in rhythmic sympathy and in 
unison with every one and every thing. 

In the cramped life of self the one obsession is to 
get. In the spiritual life our one ideal is to give; 
all that we ask is the privilege of giving and doing. 
In this desire of giving and doing, we must always 
exact of others their part. I have known many 
who were unselfishly selfish, which means that lov- 
ing to give and to do they unwisely overdo for 
others. It is motive which counts, and this should 
be the desire to awaken in others the joy of giving 
and doing. All life is reciprocity because we are 
integrally a unit ; and to crush the initiative of others 
by too much giving, to weaken their ability by too 
much doing for them, is a mistake that Love never 
makes. Love aids others to aid themselves, and fre- 
quently this consists in withholding when it comes 
to external things. He who demands the best of 
others gives in the real sense, for spiritual giving 
is confidence in the ability of others. 

The Open Door stands before every child of the 
eternal God ; this means life, love, expression, bless- 



HEALING 157 

edness. Knock and it shall be opened to your con- 
sciousness; for on the other side of self-renuncia- 
tion stands this Open Door to cast into your re- 
ceiving soul the glory streaming through. Chord 
up the desires of your soul until it is Truth alone 
that you seek and, finding it, "all things whatsoever 
you desire shall be added unto you." Spiritual health 
is ours only as we have first the Kingdom — the 
work we desire, the friends we crave, the substance 
we hope for, to be found only in the Kingdom of 
Consciousness. 

Centered in God, — In the secret chamber of each 
soul is hidden an intense desire for beauty, which is 
the perfection of the spiritual world. We can never 
be satisfied with less. If our culture and education 
are not based on the realities of spiritual world, 
we soon discover that they are tinsel and sham. 
With spiritual awakening comes the elimination of 
nonessentials with which we have been cumbered. 
Once we have experienced the Divine Adventure, 
petty fears and annoyances are destroyed. We fear 
nothing and no one. We do not fear malicious nor 
condemnatory thought from anyone. Once we are 
actually centered in God, we "put on the whole 
armor of God,'* and no shaft of mortality can pene- 
trate this. 

Absolutely no one can injure us but ourselves. 
If another seems to injure us, it is our ignorance 
and fears which have left us open to his arrow, and 
in the rectification of this ignorance we are bene- 
fited. If another has exposed to us the weak spot 
in our armor, this we can count as gain. When we 
have the divine alchemy of Truth every circum- 



IS8 TRUTH AND LIFE 

stance in life pays toll to us — never a person, a con- 
dition, a circumstance through the daily experience 
of life but leaves us the richer. When we become 
men and women we put away childish fears; we 
know that in God no one and no condition can 
defeat us. 

As we become aware of spiritual Reality we learn 
to deal only with the permanent and unalterable 
elements in the Soul. We have a measure and a 
test for Power, and the whole nature becomes one 
of intense belief. We feel ourselves invested with 
a divine mission, and, with the great prophets of all 
ages, we call men back to the worship of the one 
God, whose Kingdom exists in beauty and wholeness 
and is as ample as the needs of man. 

Spiritual insight makes life infinitely worth while; 
but we must pay the price for it. The price is abso- 
lute renouncement of a material world and material 
pleasures. If we are to be real the undivided atten- 
tion must be given to spiritual ideals. Every thought 
and act must be in conformity with what Dante 
called the "intelligent world.'' The wide develop- 
ment of the race and all of our personal endeavor 
for proficiency and efficiency are but to enable us 
to interpret the beauty of the spiritual world. At 
first we learn to work that we may live. After the 
Vision we learn to live that we may work. At the 
first it is necessity which compels us to work. At 
the last it is the sheer beauty of the revelation which 
impels the desire to express concretely to our con- 
sciousness and that of others that which we see. 

Seeing and Doing. — All education is development 
of the ability to interpret life. The ecstasy of the 



HEALING 159 

Vision itself becomes subordinate to the necessity of 
expressing it. He who has found his work cannot 
be lured from doing it though Satan himself stood 
before him with his enticement of all the kingdoms 
of the world and the glory of them. We cannot hear 
his voice ; we cannot see his form ; his lure is power- 
less. The ability to work intelligently with God and 
interpret life in terms of beauty and worth is the 
crowning glory of life. Within himself man has 
the means and the power to attain the resurrection. 
''To him that overcometh will I give the crown of 
life." 

We come through the narrow gate of self-renun- 
ciation with light baggage. Stefansson proved that 
he could live years in the Arctic on the resources of 
that region. Many are now realizing that the spir- 
itual life supplies every need. We refuse the weight 
and heaviness of mortality. Self-renunciation is 
to be rid of sense, weight and weariness. It is to 
arise into a sense of newness of life and opportunity. 
It is to consciously stand in the Open Door through 
which issues the supernal light and beauty of the 
Empyrean. The consciousness of the Infinite holds 
us in itself, and what is not of it can find no lodg- 
ment in us, if we keep busy in the interpretation of 
spiritual Reality. 

Like Paul, we who have beheld the Vision yet 
feel ourselves to be "profitless servants,'' so far short 
of the true interpretation do we still fall. In the 
last analysis it is the expression of our own lives 
in terms of spiritual beauty and completeness, that 
constitutes happiness. Only that man is happy 
whose faculties are employed in constructive ideals 



i6o TRUTH AND LIFE 

which aid in the progress of the race to its Divine 
Adventure. It is toward this goal that the great 
procession marches; and those who are in the van- 
guard are now experiencing peace — ^peace as deep as 
the infinite love of God. 



CHAPTER IX 

FAITH. 

To every man there openeth 

A way, and ways, and a way, 

And the high soul climbs the high way. 

And the low soul gropes the low ; 

And in between on the misty flats 

The rest drift to and fro. 

But to every man there openeth 

A high way and a low, 

And every man decideth 

The way his soul shall go. 

— John Oxenham. 

If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall 
say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, a^d 
it shall remove ; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. — 
Matt. 17:20. 

If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall 
ask what ye will and it shall be done imto you. — John 15:7. 

"Without faith it is impossible to please God/' the 
author of "Hebrews" said with emphatic directness. 
It is only possible to be pleased with ourselves as we 
do please God ; for one is not innately satisfied until 
he produces something of worth, and his conscious- 
ness rests in the conviction of its worth. An abid- 
ing conviction can only rest in the eternal conscious- 
ness of God. The man who paraphrased Pope, "an 
honest man is the noblest work of God," into, "an 
honest Grod is the noblest work of man," was a 
deeper seer than the poet. God created all men 

161 



i62 TRUTH AND LIFE 

honest ; but it is only as we perceive our own innate 
honesty that we discern the absolute integrity of God 
and the unchangeableness of spiritual creation. 

The word "faith" as used by the writers of the 
New Testament, means Cosmic Vision plus the prac- 
tical ability to make of this vision a tangible reality. 
It is spiritual eflficiency. Its original high signifi- 
cance has been lost because the prevailing orthodox 
religions use it as a synonym for blind belief. Faith 
is never blind ; it is clear seeing ; the "evidence" of 
things not to be seen with the eye of sense. The 
vision of faith is not limited to things which "do 
appear"; but it perceives that "eternal city which 
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." 
Without this vision, progress or any work of value 
is impossible. 

Since words are the creative instruments, without 
which is not anything made, the essential of spirit- 
ual education is a clear discernment of their mean- 
ing. Faith is distinctly a Christian expression and 
conveys something hitherto unrevealed. The orig- 
inal disciples, those who had the privilege of being 
taught by the Man who could say, "Who hath seen 
me hath seen the Father," perceived a radiance 
in the word. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews, 
is one of the most inspiring in the New Testament. 
It is the consensus of what was wrought through 
faith, and contains in its opening sentence the best 
definition of the word that has ever been written. 
Some one has said that a word should dump its 
meaning; but the full glory of the word faith, can 
never be introduced into the consciousness unless 
one has experienced spiritual illumination. 



FAITH 163 

Vision and Power. — "Faith is the substance of 
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." 
Evidence is the proof that can only come from an 
eye witness, and the substance of anything is that of 
which it is composed. The two clauses of this defi- 
nition of faith make of it a concrete working basis. 
The first clause posits the substance of the spiritual 
universe, the second supplies the model into which 
this substance may be shaped. When the eye per- 
ceives a thing and the consciousness lays hold of its 
reality as a spiritual entity, we have possession of 
it; it cannot then by any power in the universe be 
wrenched from us. Real possession is dependent 
on this perception. In the spirit of faith thus de- 
fined in Hebrews, one must become an effective 
worker. Half of the definition is vision, the other 
half the means to carry the ideal in vision through 
to concrete expression. 

What is demanded by this superb word faith, is 
the combination of the seer and the artist. All the 
real work of the world has been accomplished by 
the practical mystics, men and women of faith. The 
man who can show us the result through concrete 
constructive production convinces us of that faith. 
The one unanswerable argument is the presentation 
of a Truth demonstrated. The answer to all the 
wrongs and errors of sense is the demonstration 
of faith. "I criticize by creation,'* said Michael 
Angelo, and this criticism permits no come backs. 
He alone can inspire us to emulation who illus- 
trates his visions in accomplishment. "Without 
works faith is dead," — b, still-born vision. Progress 
lies altogether along lines of constructive enterprises. 



i64 TRUTH AND LIFE 

The vision may come to anyone, but it abides only 
with him who works; and as Hfe is a continuous 
revelation, work is the executive hand which makes 
inner revelations visible. It is not enough to see, 
we must make others see, by leaving completed 
work as the footprints in our path. 

"Four men stood before God at the end 

of the seventh day. 
The first man said, What is it for? The Philosopher. 

The second man said. Why did you 

do it? The Scientist. 

The third man said, Let me have it. The Business Man. 
The fourth man said nothing, but fell 

down and adored, and when he 

arose he made one like it. The Artist.*' 

The ability to produce our own visions into tangi- 
ble results is the power of faith. 

Faith is Laying Hold of Omnipotence. — The evo- 
lution of the race, with all of its enterprises and ac- 
complishments, is the result of faith. "Faith steps 
out on seeming void and finds the solid rock.*' Faith 
perceives ' and receives what is invisible to sense, 
and through immutable law the substantial entity 
appears. "According to your faith be it done unto 
you,*' is a divine decree. More we cannot have, 
less it cannot be. The measure meted to us by 
inevitable law, is the measure of our faith. It was 
St. Theresa's faith which enabled her to say, when 
laughed at for asserting that she would build a great 
orphanage with three ducats : "Theresa, it is true, 
with three ducats can accomplish nothing, but 
with God and Theresa, and three ducats, there is 
nothing which Theresa cannot do.'' 

Faith is an insight into the Mind of the Creator, 



FAITH 165 

and a clear perception of the benevolent law that is 
shaping the course of events. We find the Creator 
and discover His Law through the real experiences 
in our lives. A real experience is one in which we 
are conscious of God's love and power. Negative 
conditions of weakness, impotence, want and misery, 
are not experience; they are the lack of it. If we 
desire to grow every day we must enlarge the region 
of our faith and adjust conditions to this expanding 
vision. The search for the solution of difficulties 
is the search for the inner, and the power of faith 
is to arrange our outer conditions according to its 
adjustments. 

The greatest benefactors of the race are its seers. 
It is the men and women of vision who have given 
the race every upward impetus, and inspired every 
forward movement. They discern the Builder and 
the Plan. They discover that God is the perfect 
Artist who in His own Being works out His Crea- 
tion, until a spiritually conscious mankind is pro- 
duced. It is faith alone which enables man to be 
the co-operative fellow workman with God, the in- 
telligent partner of the Divine Architect. It was a 
triumphant Paul who wrote Timothy, "I have fought 
a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept 
the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness.** 

Faith Based on What Is Seen, — Spiritual experi- 
ence is the recompense which is never lacking if we 
keep the sustained contact of continuous faith. To 
"stand fast in faith" is to make continuous progress. 
This is the yoke which unites us with Omnipotence : 
a mental attitude, which is normal and natural, if 



i66 TRUTH AND LIFE 

sin does not obscure the vision. We know that no 
intelligent architect, artist or sculptor will commence 
a structure or begin a work until the model is well 
established in consciousness. In our search for 
reality, we have found the Divine Architect, be- 
cause we have discovered a method of work which 
produces results. If we perceive the Vision and 
work according to the pattern, we are productive. 
To disregard the pattern is to be non-productive. 
The Supreme Architect has the model in His Con- 
sciousness, and with Him vision and production 
synchronize. 

With the Vision the ability and means to interpret 
come also. To receive the vision of the Kingdom is 
to find our own individual self and work. If these 
are unknown, sin, which is spiritual blindness, ob- 
scures the vision. "Knock and it shall be opened 
unto you." We receive it by faithfully watching, 
working and waiting. "But in the end it shall 
speak, and not lie, though it tarry wait for it; be- 
cause it will surely come." Thus Habakkuk as- 
sures us from the Watch Tower of Faith. "Who- 
soever asketh receiveth/' comes down to us confi- 
dently from Him who spake with authority. There 
are no favored children of the universal Father ; the 
least in His sight is as the greatest, for degrees of 
consciousness proclaim the worker and the shirker 
and not an especial favoritism of the impartial God. 

Great lives are natural because their fine percep- 
tions are trained to see and work with that invincible 
Power which governs the stars in their courses and 
shapes the destiny of man. Great lives are the re- 
sult of faith; and "these while their companions 



FAITH 167 

slept, were toiling upward in the night." Faith is 
vigilance, alertness, awareness. It is instant in per- 
ception and action, definite in purpose, determined 
in aim. Faith is the activity of the true worker, 
for the vision is the means and the goal. 

Beacon Light of History, — In the lives of our 
great men and women we read the history of the 
race. They have carried the human race over the 
abyss of ignorance to great accomplishments. It is 
the vision of the successive leaders of his race that 
the author of Hebrews traces. The key note of 
this book is faith. It is faith which finds God ; it is 
faith which enables man to advance through chaos 
and darkness, into light, order and beauty. It is 
faith which enables mankind to see the trend of life 
and to reinforce and direct tides of righteousness. 
The great lives of history were those who were sen- 
sitive to the needs of their age, and gazing past the 
limitations of their time saw what would be if they 
could inspire others "to look up and not down, to 
look in and not out." 

Faith and works are joined together in the Mind 
of God, and that which the Infinite holds inseparable 
man cannot rend asunder. Faith without its accom- 
panying act is devoid of power. If we actually be- 
lieve we act upon the belief ; if we actually see, we 
must persist until victory is complete. If action and 
persistence do not accompany vision, it is merely a 
fleeting impression and not a vital conviction. Faith 
is a conviction so strong that the result is a new 
impetus given to the consciousness. Faith compels 
action for it brings us into the direct action of God^ 



i68 TRUTH AND LIFE 

in Whom accomplishment of purpose is the eternal 
characteristic. 

Faith Vital to Hope and Love, — Paul in his su- 
preme epistle, the thirteenth chapter of first Corin- 
thians, places faith first among the evangelical vir- 
tues ; for no man can either hope or love, save as he 
shall first see and do. How can we love before we 
know what we love and why we love? Love is the 
result of faith. Of such supreme importance is 
faith that Jesus declares it to be a condition of 
consciousness necessary to all accomplishment. 
Faith to Jesus was the light which enabled him to 
see what to do, and how to do it. The Kingdom 
of God was the model from which he worked, and 
thus holding to it constantly he was "without sin." 

The limit of one's ability and accomplishment is 
the limit of one's faith. The result of the work is 
the measure of the faith. A quiescent acceptance 
of a God with Whom we are unable to commune and 
from Whom we are unable to receive a reply, is the 
devitalization of religion. Communion is the basic 
necessity of religion. This vital certitude and spir- 
itual receptivity was so habitual with the great Mas- 
ter, that he wondered so few possessed it. We know 
that by using the faith we have we increase our 
store, and faith enlarges as we constantly "seek 
those things from above." Faith is the ability to 
break all present limitation and build a new life in 
Spirit. 

**As the marsh hen builds her nest on the watery sod, 
I will build me a nest on the greatness of God." 



FAITH 169 

Demonstration Possible only Through Faith, — 
Faith is the abiHty to see the Kingdom of ReaHty, 
which reduces the "materiar' to its native nothing- 
ness. In the Kingdom is the complete Hfe and ac- 
coutrement for victory, for each child of the Eternal, 
for "above all things Truth beareth away the Vic- 
tory." Faith enables us to put victory on as a 
garment. The imperative command to those who 
would attain is, ^'Believe that ye have received,'' and 
the absolute assurance follows, ^'ye shall have/' In- 
telligence demands that before any man proclaim 
himself to be a Christian, he shall examine and find 
whether he have the right to so designate himself. 
The man who asserts that he is a mathematician and 
yet is unable to demonstrate its initial demands of 
addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, 
would not be counted in a body of mathematicians 
as one of them. The man who claims to be a Chris- 
tian without the ability to heal, teach, bless and uplift 
would fare no better in the school of Christ. 

Truth is demonstrable, and faith is the key to the 
solution of every problem which confronts the hu- 
man race. The unconditioned and unending asser- 
tion of Christianity is that "every one that asketh 
receiveth." No one needs to have an unproved re- 
ligion or to take it second hand. The Kingdom is 
here everlastingly the eternal Occupant of Every- 
where. Its insistent demand is that it be accepted as 
the one basis for thought and act and proved by 
each individually. Nothing could be more fair or 
more impartial. The street-sweeper may receive it 
as surely as the millionaire who drives over the 
cleaned streets. The farmer's lad at work in his 



I70 TRUTH AND LIFE 

father's field may prove it as surely as the graduate 
of Harvard or Oxford. The octogenarian is no 
more excluded than the youth in his teens or the 
man in his prime. The Kingdom exists for the one 
in disease or in the dens of crime as surely as for 
the man in established physical or moral health. It 
has but one condition, the willingness to receive and 
the determination to obey. 

Faith is God's Gift to Man. — ^The stigma upon 
Christians of any denomination is the acceptance of 
a creed that is anything less than Christianity pur- 
ports to be, which is the resurrection from the ma- 
terial to the spiritual basis of life. We can seek and 
find the Father wherever we are, and have the treas- 
ures of the Kingdom opened to us. "If I ascend up 
into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in 
hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings 
of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the 
sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy 
right hand hold me." The one unescapable thing in 
the universe is the Father's love, and the Father's 
gift to man. His child, which is the Vision and Sub- 
stance, in the Christian Chronicle called faith. 

Men and women of faith do not dwell in cloistered 
cells in a trance of mystic exaltation, but live down 
among men ministering to their needs and weaving 
into the woof and warp of common lives strands of 
the eternal substance. They work because having 
the Vision and Spirit, they must work. Under the 
light of the Vision the only rest is that of assisting 
others to partake of the heavenly manna also. To 
"see no man after the flesh, but after the Spirit," is 
to reveal to that other his inmost self, to draw him 



FAITH 171 

"through cords of a man, with bands of love," up 
into the expression of that for which an Infinite God 
has created him. 

Every one who works in constructive enterprises, 
in education, business, politics or art, is a teacher of 
religion. Everything which makes for the better- 
ment of human life, and adds to the sum of human 
knowledge, is religion. Religion covers every need 
of the human family. It is the frictionless move- 
ment and perfect performance of all of that ma- 
chinery. Education as a whole is an insight into the 
universal design, which renders us responsive to the 
demands made upon us by the Thinker, Who is 
working it out through the conscious co-operation 
of responsible beings made in His own image and 
likeness. Vocational training and education enable 
each to specialize for his own particular contribu- 
tion; for in this design every one who has been 
created by the Omniscient Father has his work and 
his place. 

Discovery of Our Place Through Faith, — No one 
chooses his part, but he is chosen for it; he must 
discover it and complete it through faith. Each one 
stands an immutable fact in the universe; God has 
need of him or he would not be. Paul, the "chosen 
vessel," was the great apostle of originality. His 
demand to "come forth from among them and be 
ye separate" is of prime importance in the develop- 
ment of individuality. Christianity teaches speciali- 
zation in the development of the gifts with which 
we have been endowed. This is a time of trained 
specialists, and an insight into spiritual principles 
is absolutely essential in order to keep abreast of the 



172 TRUTH AND LIFE 

age. Specialization is the emphasis of this age, as 
literature was of the Elizabethan period, or as 
was art in the age of Pericles. In divine aloneness 
and communion with the Father, through faith we 
receive the especial gift with which we have each 
been endowed, and with the revelation comes also 
the means for its complete expression. 

We denude ourselves of mortality as we clothe 
ourselves with faith, which is the essence of im- 
mortality. Faith uncovers the real self, and we 
stand revealed to ourselves and to our fellow beings. 
God has always known the possibility of each, for 
it is His own ; but faith enables us to know, to de- 
velop and to express the innate gift with which each 
has been endowed. Faith is an intimacy we estab- 
lish with the Father, who in the secret place of our 
individual consciousness places upon each a special 
commission to be delivered to His other children. 
The gift is a trust and a commission, and faith is 
the road and means for its transportation. Faith 
is "the Way, the Truth and the Life," and no man 
cometh to the Father save through it. 

Faith Reveals Our Place in the Great Social 
Structure. — The "greater works" yet remain to be 
done by the younger brothers of the great Pioneer. 
What they are can only be revealed as we catch up 
with Him. The life of Jesus was a direct unfold- 
ment through faith of spiritual man. He claimed 
no earthly parentage; spiritual man can neither be 
born nor die. Faith is a linking up with the life 
which always was and ever will be the same, a 
conscious conviction of what man is and the part 
assigned him by eternal decree. Faith is a con- 



FAITH 173 

sciousness of the "amplitude of time/' and yet, at the 
same time, a freedom from its restrictive limitation. 
Faith is the restful leisure of eternity ; yet it is also 
the accelerated action of spiritual completeness. 

Faith empowers us to make new contributions and 
forms its own niches for their placements. One 
design running throughout the whole creation, the 
vision of faith enables all true work to fit in with 
the work of men of all ages. The lustre of any con- 
tribution one makes will not become dim, nor will 
the radiance be lost, for once a truth is perceived 
and fulfilled by a member of the race, it is placed in 
the Tower of Discovered Truth, conserved in the 
race consciousness and recorded to the credit of the 
contributor. The reward is the ability to see, to do 
and to deliver that which is revealed to us through 
faith. "The reward of a thing well done is to have 
done it," says Emerson in "Compensation." This 
conscious ability to do his work and make his con- 
tribution to the Tower is the end toward which 
spiritually conscious man works, and he asks noth- 
ing of life but this privilege. 

The Story of a Man of Faith. — Through faith we 
walk and talk with God, through faith we clothe 
ourselves with the power of God. No man can place 
a limitation on faith, nor any restriction upon the 
time taken to receive an answer to faith's appeal. 
George Mueller, of Bristol, claimed that the answers 
to his prayers mounted into the hundreds of thou- 
sands, and at least thirty thousand of those were 
answered on the day that his petition was made. 
The captain of one of our ocean liners tells an ex- 
perience of the stupendous power of faith in the life 



174 TRUTH AND LIFE 

of this truly great man. "In crossing the ocean on 
one of my voyages my whole life was revolution- 
ized. We had on board a man of God, George 
Mueller. I had not left the bridge for twenty-two 
hours. I was startled by some one tapping me on 
the shoulder. It was George Mueller. 'Captain/ he 
said, 'I have come to tell you that I must be in Que- 
bec on Saturday afternoon.' This was Wednesday. 
'It IS impossible/ I said. 'Very well, if your ship 
can't take me, God will provide some other way. 
I have never broken an engagement for fifty-seven 
years.' 'I would willingly help you. How can I? 
I am helpless.' He said, 'Let us go down into the 
chart room and pray.' I looked at that man of God 
and thought to myself, What lunatic asylum could 
that man have come from. I never heard of such 
a thing. 'Mr. Mueller,' I said, 'do you know how 
dense this fog is?' 'No,' he repHed, 'my eye is not 
on the density of the fog, but on the living God Who 
controls every circumstance of my life.' 

"He knelt and prayed a most simple prayer. I 
muttered, 'That would suit a children's class where 
the children were not more than eight or nine years 
old.' It was something like this : 'O, Lord, if it be 
consistent with Thy Will, please remove this fog in 
five minutes. You know the engagement you made 
for me in Quebec for Saturday.' Then I would also 
pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder, told me 
not to, and he added: 'Captain, I have known my 
Lord for fifty-seven years, and there has never been 
a single day that I have failed to gain an audience 
with the King. Get up. Captain, and open the door 



FAITH 175 

and you will find the fog is gone/ And indeed it 
was so, the fog had disappeared. 

'There are those who will say, that is not accord- 
ing to natural laws. No, it is according to spiritual 
law. The God with whom we have to do is om- 
nipotent. Hold on to God's omnipotence. Ask be- 
lievingly. On Saturday afternoon, I might add, 
George Mueller was in Quebec on time." 

The Sincere Desire. — In our strenuous endeavor 
^to understand the science of prayer we have over- 
looked the fact that it is only the sincere desire to 
do the Will of God that brings things of worth to 
pass. The "zeal of Thine house" must "eat up" 
mortal inertia and selfishness, before the vision of 
faith dawns through the consciousness and endows 
us with the power of the Spirit. Spiritual ability 
and power are conditioned to the love and knowledge 
which animates us. Only the one who loses his life 
in selfless service can pray and receive as did George 
Mueller. It is the sincere desire to do the Will which 
proves the Doctrine. 

Paul teaches the justification by faith ; an interior 
vision which enables us to perceive that spiritual 
man exists not of his own will, but by divine decree. 
Then must follow from this insight the works which 
justify this justification. Faith enables us to come 
into right relationship with the spiritual world, giv- 
ing us dominion over outer conditions. Of such 
importance is faith, that without this vision we per- 
ish. Faith is dominion over the entire realm of 
nature for the inner governs the outer when it is 
understood. Unselfish desire to aid others is power, 
because we then function in Mind universal. Ani- 



176 TRUTH AND LIFE 

mated by the selfless love that faith inspires in him, 
man governs his body and circumstances by tran- 
scribing spiritual harmonies. All conditions in our 
lives are held through the thoughts we hold as facts 
in consciousness. 

The Paradox of Faith, — The paradox of faith is 
that through obedience it commands. In the world 
of nature by compliance with its demands we take 
possession of its powers. When we comprehend the 
laws of nature we can call down lightning from the 
sky. If we surround ousel ves with a protective 
mantle of glass the lightning can play harmlessly 
about us. We sit secure in the midst of it. 

In like manner there are powers in the world of 
Spirit by compliance with which the Spirit protects 
us from the encroachment and dangers of evil and 
encases us with the consciousness of spiritual im- 
munity. Receptivity to the Spirit, humility, faith, 
obedience, love and work; these are the means that 
keep us in touch with God and enable us to clothe 
ourselves with His Power. Barricaded behind the 
fortress of faith we are untouched by the doubts, 
fears and limitations which have defrauded us of 
our birthright. Some one has said that the only sin 
is limitation. 

Miracles, — "Here is what sings unrestricted 
faith." Miracles are the result of a law set in mo- 
tion by faith. Physical laws have spiritual counter- 
parts. The first law of physics is that, "A body once 
set in motion will move forward forever in a straight 
line unless acted upon by some external force.'' A 
spiritual ideal firmly established in consciousness is 
a spiritual law in motion, if a doubt does not inter- 



FAITH 177 

vene, the law of the universe demands its expression, 
and the absolutely certain result is inevitable. **Have 
faith in God. For verily I say unto you, that whoso- 
ever shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed 
and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his 
heart, but shall believe that these things which he 
saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever 
he saith.'' 

A word of warning here is essential. There is a 
law according to which we are working all the time. 
Every one who thinks uses this law constructively or 
destructively, in ratio to his understanding or igno- 
rance. The law is this: Every belief held in con- 
sciousness as fact is revealed in words, acts, bodily 
conditions and circumstances. Each member of the 
human family thinks all of the time and puts his 
faith in something. What is this something in which 
his faith is invested ? According to this faith we re- 
ceive. Is it in sickness, poverty, impotence, failure, 
materiality? We will have the promised result if 
we have invested in these negations, "the wages of 
sin is death." Or have we placed our faith in the 
realities of life, love, truth, and substance? Face 
the situation fairly and squarely. You have now, 
you always have had, you always will have "accord- 
ing to your faith." It is contrary to the laws of 
the universe for it to be otherwise. 

Lack of Faith is Sin. — "All that is not of faith is 
sin," is the verdict of Paul. This is one of those 
penetrating insights of the Apostle which arrests at- 
tention, and compels the most searching examination 
of our motives, opinions and beliefs. No one can 
array this sentence before himself, without realizing 



178 TRUTH AND LIFE 

the stupendous task with which he is confronted. It 
drives home the necessity of halting every thought 
and desire which presents itself to him and of put- 
ting it to the test of faith. Consciousness must be 
trained to pass judgment upon everything it accepts, 
permitting only the sheep of faith to come in, and 
absolutely rejecting the goats of mortality. Thus 
alone do we become established in the Truth. 

We sail the sea of life in perfect confidence when 
faith holds the ship of Destiny true in its course to 
the home port. The home port for each is the per- 
fect expression of the immutable fact for which it 
stands in the universe of spiritual Reality. We can- 
not deviate from the true course if Faith pilot us. 
The whole universe of Spirit is in league to place 
us where we belong when we "hitch our wagon to 
the star" of Reality. We have never had a real 
adversary. We grow as much by what we resist 
and renounce as by what we receive and accept. 
Intelligent living is definite discrimination. This 
is ours as we discern the Truth, and reject the errors 
of sense. 

Established character is the result of faith. If 
we would be conscious citizens of the spiritual world 
the sentinel of understanding must never leave his 
post. No selfish desire nor fancy must pass the por- 
tal unchallenged; no thought that cannot stand the 
searching light of Truth be admitted. Yet so open- 
minded and fearless must we be that we throw the 
door wide open to everything that is pure, true and 
constructive. We must be able to discern the good, 
the true and the beautiful wherever it be. No race, 
no creed, no age, no individual has ever been able 



FAITH 179 

to shut out entirely that which is "in you all, and 
about you air' — the perfect Consciousness of God. 
To be able to discern this Light wherever it is re- 
flected in the race consciousness is the catholicity of 
true faith. 

Faith enables us to see the things that are, but 
which are obscured so long as sense controls us. 
Faith opens our eyes to our present possibilities and 
powers. It enables us to use the power we already 
possess, but which is dormant because unrecognized. 

"Not more of Light I ask, O God, 
But eyes to see what is. 
Not sweeter songs, but power to hear 
The present melodies. 
Not greater strength, but how to use 
The power that I possess; 
Not more of love, but skill to turn 
A frown to a caress." 

Faith is the peculiar disturbance of our mental 
life in which we become aware that readjustments 
are being made, not from what we know as will, but 
because a model has been introduced into conscious- 
ness and we lend ourselves voluntarily to a gracious 
change, as the bulb is changed into the lily, as the 
grub is changed into the dragon fly. We do not 
change ourselves, we are changed as we die to sense 
and become alive in Soul. Through faith there 
enters into consciousness a conviction of the im- 
mediateness and inevitableness of this change, by a 
Power that is not ourselves yet as being in indissolu- 
ble unity with us. It is as though all the power in 
the universe was focused upon us, and uniting with 
the desire within us concentrated all in one point of 
consciousness. 



i8o TRUTH AND LIFE 

These experiences are momentary at first, but by 
and by we are convinced that those moments are 
sane instances in insane experiences. As we con- 
tinue to link ourselves with the Spirit, by refusing 
to become entangled with sense, the undisturbed 
tranquillity of the Spirit, and a conviction of Power 
come over us. Our greatest delight then is to "Stay 
at home with the Cause." We learn as it were to 
look down upon our earth experiences from the emi- 
nence of faith, with the ease the expert chess player 
enters into the game, adjusting conditions with the 
ease he adjusts his pawns. 

Faith is Making Connection, — The life that has 
been given us is not independent but interdependent. 
There is life in ourselves and this life grows from 
within itself ; but the life in itself would always re- 
main unexpressed if the Spirit outside of us did not 
encompass us and act upon us. Be the egg ever so 
fertile no chick will come forth except it be in such 
a relationship with the outside that it can grow. 
Keep it in the dark and cold and there will be no 
chick. Encompass it with warmth and air and it 
grows strong enough to break its shell. As God puts 
His Spirit upon us and in faith we reach out to that 
Spirit, we grow up into the expression of the perfect 
life in which we live, move and have our being. 

When we first come into the light our eyes are 
blinded; we cannot see distinctly. But as we grow 
accustomed to the light, things before invisible, un- 
fold to the eyes of faith. The spiritual Kingdom is 
always, but we are blind to it in sense beliefs. When 
faith opens our eyes we know that we see, guidance 
is ours — ^we know what to do and how to do it. "He 



FAITH i8i 

that walketh after me (faith) shall not walk in dark- 
ness, but shall have the light of life." Faith is em- 
phasized as the chief ingredient of power and prog- 
ress ; but it cannot be ours until we seek not our own, 
but the glory of God. So to live that the one desire 
is to glorify God, and demonstrate His perfection is 
the deathless purpose of Faith. 

The measure of the life we live is the fruit that we 
bear. No life with the dynamic faith of spiritual 
insight can be barren of results. In the world of 
Spirit all is Whole, and when we yield our lives to 
Spirit unreservedly, it fills us with its wholeness. 
When we desire fresh air in our homes we open 
wide the windows ; when we desire healing we open 
our minds and the Spirit of the Whole enters. We 
block the way of the Spirit when we lack faith, but 
by opening the heart in faith, we give Spirit the 
right of way. 

"Faith is an affirmation and an act, 
That bids eternal Truth be present fact." 

Faith is Cosmic Thinking. — Faith uncovers the 
Real. Plato claimed that the world had a soul. The 
Truth is that all is Soul. Faith is the vision of this 
Soul. Every life here is as sacred to Soul and to 
each other as the cells of the body are to the body. 
The body is the aggregate of the cells, and the cells 
are the sum total of our beliefs about life, the record 
of our own thoughts. In the light of the Soul we 
will be able to see every one in his particular place 
and discern his meaning. We discern the real mean- 
ing of our own lives as we find ourselves in our real 
relationship to all the rest of the universe. 



i82 TRUTH AND LIFE 

No beauty will ever come to us that was not first 
a vision. Expand the vision; enlarge the ideals 
through constantly turning to spiritual Reality. The 
music that stirs in our hearts, the ideals that are 
born into consciousness will expand if we permit 
them. The spiritual world which lies beyond the im- 
mediate consciousness, is a hidden Reality compel- 
ling acceptance, or the consequences of rejection — 
failure in all that we do. The Spiritual Real enters 
our consciousness only by specific invitation. To 
seek to know it, to shape its beauties in thought, to 
appraise its truthfulness, to find adequate modes of 
expression, these are the work of faith. 

Immortal Youth Through Faith, — Immortal life 
would be a terrible gift if immortal youth were not 
given with it. In the real world there is no time, 
no age, no imperfection. The Real springs out in 
its eternal life only to the consciousness that is eter- 
nally young; it refuses any other setting. To enter 
the Kingdom we must become as the little child, with 
the fresh spirit of investigation and the joyous ac- 
ceptance of its conditions ; that is the characteristic 
of childhood. Spiritual life is the eternal spring that 
dissolves the avalanches of the winter of mortality. 

The vision of faith is upon us. Former beliefs 
and limitations are passing away, all things are be- 
coming new for we are seeing them through the 
light of the Soul. Again is the veil of the temple 
rent, and we are seeing a resurrected mankind. It 
is faith, the light that gives light to all lights, that 
is revealing the New Heaven and the New Earth. 

"Give thanks and clasp thy heritage. 
To be alive in such an age." 



CHAPTER X 
LOVE. 

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor 
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, 
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, 
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. — Rom. 8:38. 

This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as 
I have loved you. — Jno. 15:12, 

Love the Unifying Power. — An early Grecian 
myth embodies the beautiful idea that all things 
were created by Love. It tells us of the time when 
all mankind lived a happy life until Hate found her 
v^ray into this glorious estate; then everything was 
disorganized. Periodically, as Love arose over the 
horizon, the world was made, and destroyed again 
by the advent of Hate. Hate disorganizes, disin- 
tegrates, destroys. Love is constructive, organic, 
and unifying ; it is the combining power which welds 
and cements the universe into one organic whole. 

Love IS power; hate is the absence of Power.. 
Love is God because it is unity; love is heaven be- 
cause it IS harmony. Love tolerates nothing that is 
unlike itself, and breaks down all opposition by com- 
bining all that is of itself into one beautiful struc- 
ture. It is the absence of unity and harmony which 
makes hell. Take love away and the organic power 
of unity being withdrawn, disintegration must en- 

183 



i84 TRUTH AND LIFE 

sue. Hell is the antipode of heaven because it is the 
antipode of love. 

Love is the Perfect State. — God is perfect and 
can create nothing that is imperfect. It is His Love 
which makes the universe one perfect whole. 
Heaven is a state of perfection or harmony because 
there can be nothing in it which is unlike or opposed 
to God. The work of Jesus was the establishment 
of this kingdom in the consciousness of men, mak- 
ing of them an organized unity cemented together by 
love. The perfect state of all God's children is their 
likeness to Him, and God is love. This is conscious 
unity of man with God, and of man with man. It is 
peace on earth, good will among men. 

Set love in motion and evil must vanish. Evil in 
its nature is decay, and love can destroy it utterly. 
The greatest joy of the citizens of heaven is said to 
be emptying hell, because love by its very nature is 
constructive, and the wastefulness of hell is a condi- 
tion which the presence of love renders impossible. 
Love is power, and the only power. Being the one 
power it cannot fail, for there is no opposition to it. 
It is irresistible, and sweeps everything into itself 
by converting all into the same essence. It is a 
closed corporation and fast barred against all in- 
trusion. The more we comprehend love as the mov- 
ing force of the universe, the greater will be the 
advancement in constructive idealism, and the sooner 
will be the kingdom of heaven established in the con- 
sciousness of man. Love is the real measure of life ; 
it is the scales in which we are weighed, and we are 
found efficient in the degree in which love animates 
us. 



LOVE i8s 

Love is Our Potency. — To live in love is to be in 
power, and we disconnect from power as we become 
loveless. Through lovelessness, lives disintegrate, 
for we depart from unity and power as we depart 
from love. Love never leaves us; it is the omni- 
present essence of creation. As we lose the con- 
sciousness of love we leave it, and are therefore 
impotent. Love is the saviour of every situation and 
the salvation of every man. As we have the con- 
sciousness of love, we cease from resentment and 
antagonism, and abandon the belief in our separa- 
tion from God and each other. 

We do not love simply because we no longer in- 
jure others; love is an active good will. It is that 
which compels us to go out of our way to aid others 
in all needed ways. The pharisaical demand of stern 
justice, that sinners be punished for evil doing, finds 
no place in love. All that love asks is that the evil 
doer see how ineffectual is his way for happiness 
or construction, and to come into the joy of pur- 
poseful creation by leaving his sin. Love is divine 
compassion; it never ceases to work for those who 
are unhappy or suffering. It regards every form 
of evil as ignorance which will be destroyed as 
Truth is discerned. Love being the constructive 
power works continuously for the conversion (turn- 
ing around) of the evil doer; for each one who is 
not consciously in the Kingdom leaves a vacancy 
which the perfection and completeness of the whole 
demand to be filled. 

Love is True Perceiving. — The Greeks painted 
Love blind, but the Christian seer knows that love 
has the only true sight ; it perceives the perfect de- 



i86 TRUTH AND LIFE 

sign which runs through all and knows the value of 
each unit. We can never know any one whom we 
do not love ; love is the only medium through which 
one can communicate himself to another. We are 
drawn out by love, but find ourselves hermetically 
sealed when not conscious of its presence. Love is 
an enveloping atmosphere which braces us to do and 
be our best. Love is an energizing power which 
quickens our faculties and develops abilities of which 
we were unconscious until we experienced it. 

All diversities unite in love, for in its conservation 
nothing is useless. Each person has his place, and 
the integrity of the whole demands the expression of 
all its units. Love penetrates through the ignorance, 
greed and selfishness of mortals and sees what one 
may be, because even now he is perfect in the spir- 
itual world. Thus informed it works unweariedly 
until the lost consciousness of usefulness and per- 
fection is restored. Love harbors no condemnation 
for any one or anything. Condemnation is wasteful 
and defeats its own ends ; it is of the evil brood of 
hate and accomplishes nothing. Love calls to the 
Spirit of another and refuses to cease calling until 
the Spirit of that other responds. Love is all-power 
and cannot fall short of its goal. 

Love the Beginning of Life. — When we under- 
stand that man is a center of God intelligence and 
power, truly accept this for ourselves, and, regard- 
less of the ignorance of others, see this intelligence 
for them also, then does the real life commence. In 
the large comprehensiveness of love men unfold as 
naturally as the blossom in the sunlight. The mo- 
ment we come into the consciousness of love, that is, 



LOVE 187 

accept the order of the universe, whose essence and 
nature is love, we come into the law of freedom. 
Love is expression, the contrary is repression, and 
this is hell. The original meaning of the word hell 
is "to hide." 

Love is the revelation of life. Even the simplest 
life has many departments. In the light of love we 
take an inventory of these, and build into each our 
ideal of what it should be. This can be done only as 
we love life and permit its perfect expression 
through us. Love is appreciation; for its scale of 
values results from its perception of the perfect 
design in which each has his essential part. Each 
man's life is inextricably interblended with the wel- 
fare of the race, and growth is the reaction upon 
ourselves of that which we have sent out to others. 
Thus do we learn that the law of life is love. 

Love is the Creator, — Love is the infallible weaver 
of destiny. To live from the principle which is Life, 
Truth and Love is to know God and His Creation. 
The better we know these principles and base thought 
upon them, the less choice we have. If a man 
is governed by love we know how he will act; if 
he is not governed by its principle, he is an un- 
known quantity acting under the hypnotism of mor- 
tal belief. God is love, therefore we know that He 
is compelled by the constitution of His Being always 
to act from love. He has no choice and can do no 
otherwise. We therefore do know God because He 
thinks in the principle of love; and we can fore- 
know men only to the extent that they are governed 
by this divine principle. Love being a principle 
takes no cognizance of mortal ignorance; it covers 



i88 TRUTH AND LIFE 

with its knowing and consumes with its perfection, 
all that is not of itself. 

Love knows that there is some talent or ability in 
every one which if developed and placed in the right 
position enables him to excel. Love is never senti- 
mentally weak; it demands of others their best. 
Love trusts others*with responsibilities regardless of 
temporary losses. The one way by which to develop 
power is to place responsibilities and exact their ful- 
fillment. No parent, teacher or employer gains co- 
operation or intelligent service save as he exacts 
from others the fulfillment of their duties. It is 
often far easier to do the work of another if he is 
slow or inefficient. But love never seeks the easy 
way; love finds the effective way to aid others and 
remains at the post until its purpose is consummated. 
Love gives only its best and in turn accepts nothing 
less. Human relationships can never be true or last- 
ing except this be the basis. The tie which connects 
us with another is this stimulus. If it is lacking 
friendship dies, because it has no roots, for love 
is of the Spirit, and unless we touch it we have 
fallen short, that is we miss the soul of the other. 

Love is the Universal Solvent, — All that we really 
know is God and His Creation. As we advance in 
love's spiritual discernment, the mist of materialism 
is destroyed, and we know as we are known. We 
are valuable to God and His purposes only as we 
come to see that love is the one principle, and con- 
form our lives to it. Then we become giants of 
spiritual enterprise, and are empowered for the es- 
tablishment of God's kingdom in the consciousness 
of His children. Never a problem confronts us that 



LOVE 189 

we may not solve if love, which is God, be with us. 
The impossible then becomes possible. Love is the 
solvent which destroys all limitation and opens wide 
the door of spiritual accomplishment. 

Man is incapable of a sustained desire if the de- 
sire is not in Mind for expression, and the expres- 
sion of Mind is always Love. The unity of the 
worlds and unity of the races are held intact by the 
infinite love of God, so that it is impossible for man 
to be happy save as he loves and is beloved. Love is 
the atmosphere in which our lives express and ex- 
pand ; therefore, love. Love any one and every one ; 
love anything and everything ; love under all circum- 
stances and conditions. Love the good because we 
grow like that which we love; love the unthankful 
and the evil because the divine alchemy of love will 
change them into the lovable beings which they are 
even now in the spiritual world. 

Love the Goal of Life, — Life with all its trials, 
with all its opportunities, is *'just our chance 0' the 
prize o' learning love." The day in which we have 
not advanced in love is a day lost. The day in which 
we have transmuted no dross of earth in ourselves 
and others is an unmarked one in our calendar. The 
days are the stairway upon which we mount to 
heaven, and the day not marked off by a love episode 
is a lost opportunity. We can live this day but once ; 
every second of it should be filled with loving 
thoughts and deeds, energizing ourselves and quick- 
ening others with the divine zeal. 

A character is only as large as the love which ani- 
mates and quickens it. We grow in spiritual power 
by magnifying love. In whatever guise evil appears. 



I90 TRUTH AND LIFE 

our call is to increase love until it completely covers 
the evil and destroys it. Love tolerates no rival; it 
completely absorbs everything into itself. Our po- 
tency consists in extending love until it conquers 
every evil and fills the whole horizon. Every draft 
made on God's love is honored. We have only to 
make the draft large enough to meet the condition. 

No man can love God without having that love 
overflow into the lives of God's children, drawing 
the more heavily upon love as the need seems the 
greater. No man can love his fellow man without 
loving the Creator whose image man is even though 
he know Him not by name. To joy actually in the 
life that is ours, is to love the God who has given 
us His life, and to love the other members of the 
human family, for life is circulation and exchange. 

We are not living intelligently, far less spiritually, 
unless we perceive that creation is one perfect whole. 
God is unfolding to our consciousness a creation 
which in His Consciousness exists in perfection. In 
the purposeful design which runs through this crea- 
tion, all diversities unite in a perfect unity. All 
divergencies are blended into a great symphony 
when we see correctly the meaning, variety and re- 
lationships of the units. As we come to spiritual 
discernment which is the insight given us through 
love, we come under the great law of adjustment. 

It is the ability to stand true in the inflexible prin- 
ciple of love, without being deflected, that constitutes 
spiritual power. If any one or any condition can 
swerve us from love we are not established. The 
person or condition which can make us resentful, 
resistant, antagonistic or unhappy, renders us sub- 



LOVE 191 

ject to that person or condition. So long as we 
retain the calm poise of love in any situation, we 
retain the mastery of the condition and the solution 
of the difficulty. No one is ever defeated until he 
abandons love; for when clothed with love he has 
the solvent for every evil and the model for every 
structure. 

Love is not merely a way to work, it is positively 
the only way to work. Not by might nor by power 
but by the spirit of love which we infuse into work 
do we succeed in any accomplishment. Anything 
which we push through for selfish ends will bring 
disaster. Selfishness is not power but lack of power. 
Will and power belong equally to all because all are 
one in Spirit; if we work for self we are discon- 
nected from the whole, and therefore will-less and 
power-less. The work that is not done for all is 
not real but spurious, and is inevitably destroyed. 

Love the Key to All Situations, — Creation is a 
reservoir of spiritual substance, and everything need- 
ful for the development and completion of the human 
race is here. We work our supply out of the spir- 
itual world. The supply of the spiritual world is 
divine ideas. Every idea holds within itself its 
own manifestation. If we sit down to a piano 
to work out a theme we do it by yielding our- 
selves absolutely to music. The true musician thinks 
in terms of music and is unable to think in any other 
terms. In identically the same manner we must 
train ourselves to think in spiritual terms and cease 
to think otherwise. Thinking in spiritual terms we 
become merged into the Spirit, and we no longer 
think, but Christ thinketh in us. Love alone enables 



192 TRUTH AND LIFE 

us to yield ourselves without reservation to the 
Spirit of the universe. 

Love for God and fellow man is energy and en- 
thusiasm. Love is the giving of self and this giving 
is growth. God gives His life to us and gains it 
again as we give it back to Him in love. We gain 
from others all that we send out. It may not always 
come back from him to whom we sent it; but the 
universe is superbly honest and sends back to us 
with mathematical exactitude all that we have given. 
Life is continuous experiment which is experience. 
Humanity being a social unit and still far from being 
spiritually conscious, we are continually meeting our 
crude experiments and those of others. These con- 
ditions affect us for pleasure or pain, for good or 
evil, and the manner in which we meet them deter- 
mines our progression or retrogression. To meet 
life's issues in the power of Love, gives us the key 
which unlocks any situation. Love is the one thing 
which straightens out the skeins tangled by mortal 
ignorance and selfishness. Love is a tolerating, 
kindly, patient optimism which never despairs nor 
gives up any situation, but works on in confidence 
of final victory. 

To love is to free the individual powers. We are 
making the stupendous discovery that there is no 
impossible task to the mind which breaks through 
the night of sense into the light of Love. Infinity 
Itself is the vista of Love. When love possesses us 
we set out to teach the great art of making human 
existence joyful and triumphant. Education frees 
the native impulse, through which the individuality 
seeks expression, for every one is an artist if he 



LOVE 193 

breaks down the dam which has diverted the streams 
of his being into the unwholesome channel of mortal 
beliefs of fatality. 

Love Is Universally Inclusive, — It is an utter im- 
possibility to maintain the poise and power of love 
and shut out any member of the human family for 
any reason whatsoever. This does not mean that 
we are not to discriminate clearly between the real 
and unreal in each person, including ourselves. Ef- 
fective discrimination is absolutely essential if we 
are to keep the love touch with others. In the last 
analysis it is only God we love in either ourselves or 
others. To give to others nothing but spiritual love, 
to accept nothing less from others, is the law of the 
Kingdom. 

Love begins at home. No one need sigh for new 
worlds to conquer if he has not mastered conditions 
in his own home. Some years ago a woman living 
in distressingly discordant home conditions was 
asked how she maintained her unfailing cheeriness. 
She replied, "I have never accepted a discordant 
or broken home; homes are ideals in God's King- 
dom." Visit her home today and you will find that 
the ideal which she was compelled to vision for so 
many years in order to retain her sanity is today a 
tangible reality. She did not accept apparent con- 
ditions, but held to her vision until by immutable 
law the inner became the outer. To accept discord- 
ant conditions is to work in a circle, preserving the 
old inharmonies intact by giving them power. 

The man who has worked out conditions by spir- 
itual principles speaks with authority. If we do the 
Will we know the Doctrine; we can never know it 



194 TRUTH AND LIFE 

otherwise. "Love never faileth," and failure implies 
but one thing, that love has never been applied. 
There is no end to love, but the establishment of 
unity and right conditions. Love is heaven, and 
heaven has been described as an all-encompassing 
covering. Love consumes the unreal in its warm 
rays; it melts barriers; it destroys selfishness, ma- 
terialism and separation. Love will not be perma- 
nently excluded; it waits patiently outside closed 
doors until they are opened. Fear disappears on 
its approach, and impotency ceases to be in its pres- 
ence. Misery and sorrow are transformed by its 
advent to light and peace. Love is noble in pur- 
pose, steadfast in design, definite in goal. The na- 
ture of man is love, so that the expansion of his 
life and the attainment of his destiny are possible 
only as he loves. 

Love the Divine Revealer, — The mountains are 
alive with forms, the universe is filled with good, 
life is crammed with opportunities; but only those 
whose eyes are opened through love see what may 
be or can be, because love-touched eyes see the per- 
fect world. "I swear to you,'' said Walt Whitman, 
"that the universe shall be whole to him who is 
whole; it shall remain jagged and broken to him 
who is jagged and broken." Love is wholeness and 
completion. Its alchemy destroys mortal thinking, 
which, truly speaking, is not thinking at all, but the 
crude picturization of immaturity. 

Can the ideal of love be carried out in our business 
and social lives? Can we carry it beyond our na- 
tional and into our international lives? Absolutely 
we can and must; for being the Will of the one 



LOVE 195 

Father it cannot be thwarted. They who do not 
conform their lives to love must fail, for they are 
not in Power. Things may seem to flourish for a 
time to those who do not love, but their success is 
of short duration. In the end the only measurement 
is love, and man succeeds or fails through his con- 
formity or non-conformity to its inflexible princi- 
ples. It is to Love that every knee must bow ; it is 
to Love that every soul must finally respond; it is 
to Love that all secrets must be revealed. It is Love 
alone that will ultimately wear the victor's crown. 

Therefore love, and be not weary of loving. The 
sun shines, it matters not what clouds attempt to 
thwart it. Until we can love so that nothing which 
can happen to us can make us cease to love, we do 
not love. Love is an unchangeable principle, and 
loves on in undiminished fervor until it breaks downs 
every barrier, transmutes every failure and finds 
itself enthroned. It is sublimely independent, asking 
no return, and, finding its supreme bliss in loving, 
asks no other blessedness. 

Love the Governor of Every Situation. — A story 
is told of a musician, who entered a village church 
in which he found the singing discordant to his sen- 
sitive ear. Apparently every one sang in a different 
key, and some were singing different airs. His first 
impulse was to run away, but instinctive courtesy 
restrained him. Then he would fain close his ears, 
when his trained ear suddenly detected the voice of 
a young woman. She was not singing loudly to 
drown the discord, nor was she in the least confused 
by it. Before the hymn was finished, however, the 
whole congregation was singing in unison with her. 



196 TRUTH AND LIFE 

It IS impossible to compute the value of one who 
IS governed by the divine principle of love. We 
teach, heal and affect others more involuntarily than 
we do voluntarily ; that is, we influence by what we 
think and do far more than by what we say. "As a 
man thinketh in his heart so is he.'' From the secret 
impulses of our being thoughts proclaim themselves 
over any thin veneer of external propriety. If we 
want Truth we must be genuine. Actual genuine- 
ness is based in the love which sustains the universe. 
A life lived true to the principle of Love, inspires 
others and draws them into constructive accomplish- 
ment as surely as the trained musician controls the 
chorus, or the brave pioneer leads the way. The 
genius of leadership is the inspiration of noble liv- 
ing and love demonstrated. 

Life is a spiritual gymnasium in which we develop 
the capacity to love and work in unison with the 
other members of the race. The man who has 
learned to work and love in Spirit and in Truth be- 
longs to the new order of unifiers. It is the tragedy 
of human evolution that religions have had a ten- 
dency to divide the human race into opposing cliques. 
The past generation has witnessed three stages of 
religious reconstruction. First came the wreckers of 
the letter, the hardy pioneers who were denounced 
as infidels ; then came the specialists, each emphasiz- 
ing some one aspect ; now comes Truth as the unifier, 
giving to each its value and welding the scattered 
parts into one. Real religion, love for God and 
love for man, swallows up petty differences. Re- 
ligion not founded on love is misnamed. Religion 



LOVE 197 

means "to rebind," and nothing but love can bind 
man to God, and man to man. 

Love Its Own Reward. — Love is service. It 
awakens latent powers. Love demands and receives 
powers to meet the task confronting us; conse- 
quently the advance of the race is over the bridges 
built by the lovers. Love is unwearying accomplish- 
ment. Love's guerdon is that it be the leverage 
which lifts the race to higher vistas and greater ac- 
complishments. The closer we come to love the 
more work we can do ; for then the Spirit works in 
us. The earth moves eighteen miles per second yet 
we are not conscious of effort, and the soul which 
comes under the direct action of Love is carried just 
as f rictionlessly through its tasks, it matters not how 
Herculean they be. 

Kingdom rest is not inactivity, it is accomplish- 
ment. The higher we climb the spiritual heights the 
truer and greater the work. True work is never a 
blur; it is a clear cut, definite contribution to the 
great Tower of Truth, whose base rests in what we 
have discovered of Truth and whose spire is lost in 
Infinity. Love stays at home with the cause and 
finds, in the translation of the inner reality, all its 
joy. It never lacks guidance nor means. "But the 
word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy 
heart that thou mayest do it." Love is the very 
substance of which the universe is composed ; in all, 
through all, and about all. 

Love is the only real owner; and though it pos- 
sess neither title nor deed, it holds its own through 
every test of the law. Love, Lord of the Universe, 
lives in an open house giving of its best to all. Love 



198 TRUTH AND LIFE 

finds its own no matter what distance it must travel, 
nor impediment it must overcome. Bolts cannot 
shut it out, sin cannot hide it, death can take nothing 
from it, for it follows even to what blind mortals 
call the "other side." Its horizon is never limited by 
material walls. 

We deflect life from its true course when we work 
with any other motive than love. Love never works 
for things, money or position. Love is the very 
substance of all; and things, money and position 
follow its course. Neither life nor its good things 
will recognize any master except love. Before the 
world was, Life and Love were united in indissolu- 
ble bonds of spiritual wedlock, and it is impossible 
to divorce them. Loneliness and poverty cease for 
the one who has found love, for he who loves finds 
friends and conditions following him as his at- 
tendant train. 

Love the Revealer of Each One's Good. — It is 
love which uncovers the hidden meaning of our 
lives and reveals that which is our special contribu- 
tion. It is love which energizes and makes us effi- 
cient. It is love and appreciation which enable us 
to bring forward the hidden treasures of our spir- 
itual nature. It is for the delight of those whom we 
love that we put forth our best eflforts. Love is 
substance and form, and by its constructive ideals 
the innate potentialities become concrete in our con- 
scious Hves. 

Life like water becomes stagnant if it is not kept 
open and flowing. We need friendship which is 
elevating, enduring, pure and strong. True friend- 
ship brings with it a conviction of the unity of life. 



LOVE 199 

No man Hveth to himself alone ; he is in one unified 
life, and he who loves comports himself always even 
in the privacy of his own inner thinking, as if the 
welfare and integrity of all life were dependent upon 
his most secret thought. 

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and 
society is only as strong as its most unloved and 
unlovable member. It is among these members of 
society that we must work if we are to bring back to 
man the lost consciousness of unity and spirituality 
which Jesus claimed men had before the world was. 
It is easy to love those who love us in return, but we 
become like God only as we love those who seem 
ungracious and evil. To be perfect as the Father is 
perfect we must learn to love and work with un- 
wearying patience, until through the transforming 
power of love we release the bondservants of sin, 
and enable them to become conscious citizens of the 
Kingdom. 

Love reveals the innate gifts which make us differ 
from one another in expression as one star differeth 
from another in glory. We see the same Spirit, 
and through it, the diversity of the powers which 
Love has graciously bestowed upon us. Through 
love we become dynamos of centralized power. 
Love frees both the lover and the beloved, because 
through it we touch the hidden springs of life. 
Good-will is the desire for the full spiritual expres- 
sion of another. Love delights in the free spontane- 
ous expressions in the lives of others; it asks only 
to be an incentive to this. It is never jealous, self- 
seeking, hampering nor limiting. Love is generous, 



200 TRUTH AND LIFE 

freeing, educating and illuminating in its attitude to 
the whole race. 

Love Asks No Return. — Love is gentle, true and 
kind. It demands no return, for it is the spontane- 
ous action of God through us. It is unaware of 
everything but itself, and being all, there is nothing 
for which it can ask. Love is a citizen of the spir- 
itual world and dwells in eternity. It is not always 
the love which is returned to which we owe the most 
gratitude. It is rather the love another is able to 
inspire in us, which renders us debtors past all hope 
of ever fully repaying. Such an ideal is given in 
Ibsen's "Peer Gynt." Peer Gynt married a young 
girl and took her to a mountain home. He deserted 
her, and then through the wide world he roamed 
seeking diversions of all kinds. When old, decrepit, 
disillusioned, he returned to the mountain, she 
greeted him with the words, 'Thou hast made my 
life beautiful." 

A thousand years are as one day to one who loves. 
To see the Spiritual world composed of perfect be- 
ings is to be out of the limitation of time and space. 
Seeing the Real, love is unconscious of time, and 
obtaining its entire satisfaction in giving, always 
has its reward. "The truth is," says Swedenborg, 
"that love and wisdom are the real and actual sub- 
stance, and from that constitute the subject itself." 
Love is the form and substance of God, love is the 
form and substance of man. Love is the whole re- 
sponsibility of man, for love cannot dwell with self- 
ishness, sin and materiality. Love is the mind of 
God in us. Love is the prayer without ceasing 
which constitutes eternal life. 



LOVE 201 

Love the Healer, — The authors of this book, from 
rich spiritual experiences, assert that, without ex- 
ception, the healing from sin and disease which is 
the fruit of their ministry, is the result of being con- 
scious of Love. Instantaneous healing is the result 
of being aware of God ; and to be conscious of God 
is to be conscious of Love. One instant's awareness 
of the love of God will suffice to correct any sin or to 
heal any disease. Love is that which is "existent 
behind all laws, which made them, and lo, they are." 
Love is the law of laws, the Alpha and Omega, 
causation and finality of all life. 

The penalties attached to sins against love are 
more severe than those that follow the violations 
of any other virtue. To sin against love is to de- 
teriorate into lovelessness, and the disorganization 
of a loveless life compels us to rebuild the whole 
structure from the foundation up. Paul's Epistle 
to the Corinthians and that dynamic exposition of 
it, Drummond's "Greatest Thing in the World," 
with Tolstoy's "Where God is. Love is," should be 
in the library of every one who feels the compulsion 
of cultivating this supreme thing. For the end of 
all soul travail, the goal of every effort, the purpose 
of all striving is the attainment of Love. Without 
love our lives are barren though we possessed the 
wealth of Croesus, and the mines of Golconda. With 
love we are rich and complete even though we seem 
not to have whereon to lay our heads. 

Unlimited Nature of Love, — Two things man's 
innate nature demands : to know infinitely and to 
love infinitely. Infinite Truth, Infinite Love is the 
life in which man finds himself embosomed. They 



202 TRUTH AND LIFE 

press upon him from the without, they urge expres- 
sion from within, and he cannot secure that peace 
which passeth understanding save as Truth and Love 
gain absolute possession of his consciousness. 

One who loves, Hves in the fullest sense of the 
word. Love is a life of radiation. Each man stands 
the central sun in the soul system of his own life; 
and those who respond most perfectly to us, are 
those who are held in the warm radiance of our 
love. 

Whosoever loveth, "though he were dead yet shall 
he live." Love is boundless, deathless, "it believeth 
all things, hopeth all things.'* In the last analysis 
it is the love which we send out to others which con- 
stitutes our own growth and that of others. Love is 
the stimulus of life because it is the active principle. 
Love stands in the way of no one, but permits others 
the right of way. Love "seeketh not its own," be- 
cause it knows that Divine Mind never miscarries; 
therefore by immutable law its own must find it. 
Those who work in the selfless principle of love find 
lovers and friends everywhere and a joy in them 
that IS unknown to the self seeking. 

To Love is to Live, — One cannot remain inert and 
inefficient if one loves. Love compels us to be both 
givers and doers. Love is vision, activity, efficiency, 
graciousness, establishment. Love finds home, work, 
position, supply. Love is heaven, and heaven is 
love. Love is the ability to know and to be known. 
Evil can no more remain in the presence of love than 
darkness can remain in sunlight. Love is the de- 
struction of all that is unlike God. If we only send 



LOVE 203 

out love, love is compelled by the laws of the uni- 
verse to return to us. 

Love has the blessed "eyes that see," and "ears 
that hear." Love is attuned to the rhythmic har- 
monies of the universe and cannot be deflected; it 
is living in terms of the Whole. There is no suffer- 
ing in love, he who suflFers is not in love but is in 
mortal belief. Love is the hold of the Infinite which 
has never known aught but its own perfect peace. 
Love is an activity so intense, a joy so complete that 
it gives freedom to him it loves and envelops him 
with the protecting presence of God. It is the one 
healing, freeing, quickening power. To love is to 
be above sin, sorrow and suffering. 

Wherever love is, God is. Wherever God is all 
that He is camps round about. Love is the realiza- 
tion of the particular genius of one's own being, and 
uncovers the genius of others. One can always be 
at one's best when one is loved, for then one is con- 
scious of being duplicated as it were by the energiz- 
ing received from the lover. 

Love the One Necessity, — ^We press forward to 
the goal of high calling in Love — love for God and 
love for mankind, His children. Accurate discern- 
ment of spiritual principles is desired most earnestly. 
True education in the fullest sense of the term is 
most desirable; but the one indispensable and com- 
pulsory thing is to learn the lesson of love. Love 
will and must in the end discern all things, for it is 
the sesame to every society, the key to every door, 
the comprehension of every situation. 

''Somehow by thee, dear Love, I win content; 
Thy perfect stops th' Imperfect's argument." 



204 TRUTH AND LIFE 

Let thought swing back to the foundation of 
Christianity. Caesar in his pomp and pride occupied 
the Roman throne, and Rome was mistress of the 
world. In an obscure village of a tiny Roman prov- 
ince a man arose with no accoutrements of educa- 
tion, power, position or wealth. Love for God and 
love for man was his entire possession. Kaisers and 
Czars have been swept away, but today the Naza- 
rene is loved as never before in the history of the 
world ; and each succeeding generation will find him 
more strongly entrenched in the love of humanity. 

In the great love which is the creative factor of 
the universe, each man, each woman is needed, else 
in the divine economy they would not exist. It is 
the perception of this Truth that makes life so in- 
finitely worth while. That which constitutes the 
very essence of Christianity is the value it gives to 
human life. Jesus recalled men from their business, 
honest and dishonest, women from lives of slothful 
ease and shameful disgrace, and by making them 
look into the love of God compelled them to value 
the opportunities for being and doing which this 
revelation gave them. For love begets love and is 
reflected in love, and to know the Infinite Love, is 
to love. 

We are not born of the will of man nor of the 
will of the flesh, but of the will of eternal Love, to 
radiate its joys, to proclaim its powers, to manifest 
its perfection. He who loves is at home in the King- 
dom ; and can see God's eternal purpose increasingly 
through the ages run. Love dwells not in time 
but in eternity, not in space but in Spirit. "Be- 
loved, now are we sons of God." 



CHAPTER XI 

FUNDAMENTALS AND PRACTICAL WORK. 

Agnes M. Lawson. 

If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. — 
Jno. 13:17. 

The fundamentals here summarized are arranged 
in question and answer form, in order to meet the 
ordinary conditions of human life comprehendingly. 
They are framed to enable the student to make for 
himself the practical application of the principles 
which set him free. 

Question. — ^What is the relation of God to the 
universe and man? 

Answer, — Image the relationship of yourself to 
your body and circumstances, and you will have a 
concrete idea of God to His Universe. Everything 
in your body and circumstances begins and ends in 
your consciousness. You are the thinker that per- 
meates the body and conditions and holds them as 
they are. The you which thinks, wills and loves is 
the creator and stands above the body and circum- 
stances visible to the senses of man. These are 
absolutely under the dominion of the thinker ; there- 
fore nothing is impossible to you when you learn to 
govern through divine principles. Man governs to 
the end of his domain, which is all that concerns his 
welfare. In the same manner God overshadows, 

205 



2o6 TRUTH AND LIFE 

yet permeates His Universe which includes man, 
according to His Consciousness, that is to say, per- 
fectly. When you think in His perfect Conscious- 
ness, having eliminated mortal or materialistic think- 
ing, and permit the perfect consciousness of the 
spiritual world to shine through and illuminate the 
lacks and obscurities, you will reign over your body 
and circumstances, as God reigns over His Uni- 
verse. As we come to know God we grow more 
conscious of His perfect reign, and our lives become 
true and real in the degree in which we realize this 
knowledge. 

Question, — ^What is man's relation to God? 

Answer. — Man is the spiritual and perfect Idea 
of God, the means through which God reveals his 
Spirit, Love and Truth. Infinite Mind and its ex- 
pression are co-existent, and of the same nature. 
Man is the expression or representative of God, 
God is the Creator and life of man. In man inheres 
the intelligence and capacity for expression which 
are God's. Man's life is derived from and is de- 
pendent on God; God is dependent upon man for 
the expression of His life, truth and love. God and 
man can never be separated, and man can never be 
other than as he is in God, for God is the principle 
of man, and sustains him in His Consciousness. 

Question, — What is God ? 

Answer, — God is Spirit, and Spirit is the sub- 
stance of which the universe is composed. God is 
the Intelligence which is the law and order of the 
universe. God is Truth, the established Real of 
everything that exists. God is the Principle, the 
first and last of all beings and things in the universe. 



FUNDAMENTALS 207 

God IS Love, the combining power that secures the 
unity of the universe, and which is the medium 
through which we comprehend God and ourselves. 
God is Father, because He is a Being with whom 
we may commune and who, according to spiritual 
methods, communes with us. 

Question. — If God is omnipresent, how can there 
be disease, death, hatred and poverty? 

Answer. — These conditions exist in the sense that 
mathematical errors exist on the blackboard made 
by one ignorant of mathematics, or as discords exist 
when struck by a player ignorant of music and his 
instrument. These conditions are the result of un- 
true thinking. We must know the Truth in order 
to think correctly, and when we learn to think Truth, 
these seeming conditions will cease to be. 

Question. — What is correct thought? 

Answer.— Correct thought is God thought. This 
means thinking the way things are, and not as they 
appear to be. It is the way things are in the model 
or spiritual world, to which thought must conform 
to be true. We are free from evil in proportion to 
our ability to think in Truth principles. 

Question. — ^What is evil ? 

Answer. — Evil, from beginning to end, is false 
thinking and the objectification of it. It is the con- 
dition which results from false thinking. Consid- 
ered in the universal sense, evil is non-existent; it 
has no basis in Reality. God, who is infinite per- 
fection, pervades the universe from center to cir- 
cumference so that there can be no imperfection. 
When we can perceive that there is absolutely no 
condition known as evil which correct thinking will 



2o8 TRUTH AND LIFE 

not destroy, we realize our dominion over evil. Evil 
is the product of ignorance ; knowledge of the nature 
of God, man and the universe frees us from it. 

Question, — What is the meaning of the expres- 
sion, "Resist not evil'*? 

Answer. — To resist or fight evil makes a reality of 
it ; it thereby becomes difficult to cope with. In fact 
we can never successfully cope with it so long as 
we believe it to be a real thing. Fighting or con- 
demning the figures of an incorrect statement of a 
mathematical problem will not aid us to find the true 
solution. The one sane thing to do is to quietly find 
the solution and adjust the figures accordingly. The 
solution of every problem is in Mind. To find it we 
must retire into it, and to do this we must keep re- 
sistance out in order that the calm insight of His 
Consciousness shall come to us. Pain is always the 
language of resistance. As we give up resisting and 
hold ourselves receptive to the incoming harmony, 
pain ceases and God's peace and love come to our 
consciousness. With the consciousness of the power 
and presence of God, we work with a calm convic- 
tion of victory. The only power which evil has is 
that with which we invest it by our belief of its 
reality. 

Question, — Does God forgive sin? 

Answer, — God is pure Spirit; sin cannot touch 
His domain nor can it affect man whom He holds in 
consciousness as His Image. All sin whether wilful 
or involuntary is the result of ignorance of man's 
real nature. We forgive our own sins as we correct 
our own mistakes. We can always aid another by 
seeing the Real, and thus destroy the errors in 



FUNDAMENTALS 209 

thought Ignorance is the cause of sin and disease; 
knowledge of Truth is the forgiveness or correction 
of all false beliefs. Retain the thought of evil and 
disease, and the disease and sin will remain; elimi- 
nate the belief of evil, sin is forgiven and disease 
healed, because God thought enters only as false 
thought is destroyed. 

Question, — ^What is man? 

Answer. — Man is the complete expression of God 
and is "heir to all that the Father hath." He has the 
capacity to comprehend all life because he is a com- 
bination of all the ideas of which the universe is 
composed. Man begins and ends in God. He is a 
revelation or manifestation of Deity, and he is strong 
in proportion to his realization that separated from 
God he is weakness itself; but when conscious of 
being one with the Universal he possesses power in- 
exhaustible. Man is not a material being in a ma- 
terial universe, for these things do not exist. Man 
is a spiritual being in a spiritual universe. 

Question, — ^What is the universe? 

Answer, — To sense perception the universe seems 
an inert, material, unresponsive mass. To spiritual 
vision it is a vibrant, luminous, responsive Presence ; 
a Living Consciousness permeating the Whole. No 
death, no imperfection are to be found in it. Beauty, 
order and a self-luminosity inhere within it. Man 
is seen in spiritual vision to be a faultless form of 
spiritual perfection, incapable of the ills of sin, dis- 
ease and death which are apparent to sense. 

Question, — What is our relation to our fellow 
man? 

Answer, — It matters not what the attitude of an- 



210 TRUTH AND LIFE 

other may be to us, our attitude towards others, if 
we are true, is that of God to his children. From 
this eminence we see correctly, and this is absolute 
justice. Love all men, but never accept their false 
beliefs. Jesus said that he came not to bring peace, 
but a sword, meaning that the false must be sepa- 
rated from the true. The true must be recognized 
even if it be in a criminal ; the evil must be absolutely 
rejected even if found in those whom we best love. 
Those who adhere to the eternal righteousness will 
come into unity with others eventually for there is 
but one Truth and all must finally perceive it. Eter- 
nal Truth is the only basis from which to work, and 
human relationships are truly adjusted only from 
the basis of a principle of love and justice to all. 
The soul that sees, works in infinite patience. "He 
that believeth shall not make haste.'* It matters not 
what the result to the temporary interests, nothing 
is settled until it is squared by the measuring rod of 
eternity. 

Question, — What is the chief end of life? 

Answer, — The chief end of life is to know Truth. 
With this knowledge we find ourselves, and find the 
purpose of the Creator for us, which is the revela- 
tion of the work we are to do. Each member of 
the human family comes with a new gift, and is 
uneasy and restless until he discovers and delivers 
this gift through a conscious knowledge of the 
power itself; of the method through which it de- 
velops; and of the illumination it casts upon the 
gifts of others. The ideal life is to "bear witness 
unto the Truth/' to so live that if all others lived 



FUNDAMENTALS 211 

as we the Kingdom would be an established basis 
for life and work. 

Question. — How can we free ourselves from 
fear? 

Answer. — Fear is the result of ignorance. Man 
fears only what he does not understand. He be- 
comes free in proportion to his knowledge. There 
is but one perfect way of overcoming fear. It was 
stated by John in his first Epistle: "And we have 
known and believed the love that God hath to us. 
God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in 
God, and God in him. Herein is our love made per- 
fect, that we may have boldness in the day of judg- 
ment: because as He is, so are we in this world. 
There is no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth out 
fear ; because fear hath torment. He that f eareth is 
not made perfect in love. We love Him because He 
first loved us.'' 

Question, — ^What is the day of judgment? 

Answer. — Every day is the day of judgment, and 
every task that confronts us is the opportunity for 
the judgment we mete to ourselves. "For the Father 
judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment 
unto the Son." If we can meet each task with a 
conviction of victory, we judge ourselves equal to 
the execution of it. "Every man's task is his life 
preserver." In meeting any condition do not ask 
for outside assistance, but recognize God and you 
will call to your aid just what you require, and find 
yourself equal to the demand. Judgment days will 
then be joyous and victorious days with nothing in 
them to fear. Do not keep your finger on the pulse 
of your mental condition, nor gauge your powers; 



212 TRUTH AND LIFE 

your standard should be always the power of God. 
If you trust God and yourself you can meet any 
demand that is made upon you. Thus we become 
conscious of drawing upon a knowledge and power 
greater than the proscribed human limitation, and 
outstrip ourselves. Life is beyond definition. It is 
a power, a spirit, a glory, an opportunity to receive 
all Good, Love and Substance. Gain power through 
meeting face to face every demand made upon you. 
Seek with patience and love to conquer. Every ex- 
perience is an unfolding of the higher self. Meet 
the conditions of your life in faith, because you rise 
on what you conquer. Think, realize, reflect, until 
a measure of unborrowed ideas which establish a 
center of repose, gives the basis for power, health 
and work. Thus shall you look forward to the judg- 
ment days of all time with a sense of mastery. Then 
will all judgment days be joyfully anticipated. 

Question, — What is thought? 

Answer, — Thought is the action of mind. It is 
the universal language, since it is the vital embodi- 
ment of action. So long as we retain the power to 
think, we have the key to freedom. Freedom is the 
ability to think in such a manner that it releases the 
potentialities of the soul, sets in operation innate 
faculties, and quickens us into conscious rhythm 
with the realities of life. No one can think the 
thoughts, "I as a spiritual being am perfectly well, 
perfectly happy, abundantly supplied ; it matters not 
what the senses report, for I perceive my own Per- 
fect,'* without feeling through his whole being the 
vitalizing effect of the statement. As we gain con- 
sciousness of Truth we govern a situation, not by the 



FUNDAMENTALS 213 

personal will, but by a surrender to the divine Will, 
and by standing in its inflexible principles. When 
we think Truth and live and move according to 
Truth, others are affected to their good as by no 
other means. The best possible way to help others 
to see is to demonstrate Truth. 

Question, — How can we always think correctly? 

Answer. — The clearer we keep our insight, by 
dwelling upon the eternal Realities, the better we are 
able to correct the mistakes of the outsight. Out- 
sight becomes wonderfully clear in proportion to our 
ability to see the Within. "Be still and cool in thy 
own mind — still from thy searching and thy desire ; 
then wilt thou hear God's voice in thee, and learn 
His desire concerning thee." The law of life is very 
simple and easy to follow. Do the best you can to- 
day, keep the vision true today, and tomorrow a 
fuller light will be given for meeting larger tasks. 
Do not shrink from problems but complete them in 
such a manner that you grow through them. He 
that is faithful in few things is made ruler over 
many, was a frequent promise of the Master. Our 
misconception of life we find is "the enemy" that 
sows tares. Our conceptions in Truth are "the 
wheat" we may gather into the barn. Correct 
thought is the short cut to achievement. When we 
are thinking correctly we waste neither time nor 
energy trying to secure success. When one with 
God we are success, for we have then arrived at the 
supreme attainment. We do what the hand findeth 
to do, asking only to serve in the best possible way, 
keeping sustained contact with Infinite Mind and 
letting God give us the eternal success of constantly 



214 TRUTH AND LIFE 

unfolding intelligence, established character and 
definite ability. This is the substance of the spiritual 
world in potency, and with it failure is an impossi- 
bility. 

Question, — ^What is true success ? 

Answer.— TrvL^ success is the ability to see cor- 
rectly the inner or spiritual world, and the ability 
to produce something which adds to the general hap- 
piness, welfare and understanding. Success is pro- 
ductive accomplishment, it matters not in what line, 
for the physical, mental or spiritual needs of the 
race. Success is the translation of the inner po- 
tentialities of the universe in terms of actual pro- 
duction. Success is to be completely possessed by 
the spiritual Idea of life. Possession by ideas we 
call genius. Genius is many sided. It is a sympa- 
thetic imagination, which can enter into the lives of 
others, see their needs and aid them in the attain- 
ment of their ideals. This is essential for friendship 
and for the creation of works of art and literature. 
Imagination or the ability to receive images of Mind 
and reproduce them is essential in any realm of dis- 
covery or invention. It is through the imagination 
that we receive the concrete Image and images of 
the spiritual world and the ability to present a co- 
herent translation of them. Never permit the imagi- 
nation to run riot; this is a destructive waste of the 
powers of one's being. Success is the ability to 
utilize the forces of the spiritual world for the 
service of man. It is the power to love and be be- 
loved. Success takes possession of the faculties of 
one's being because he perceives their reality. Suc- 
cess is to be fearless and free because one under- 



FUNDAMENTALS 215 

stands that man is free in the Mind of an Omnipo- 
tent God. Success acknowledges no master but God, 
and believes in man's ability to interpret God in 
terms of productive work. Success is to be touched 
by the Spirit with an unquenchable desire for the 
Ideal, to be satisfied with one's work only as one has 
done the right, fearless of consequences under all 
conditions and circumstances. Success is to keep 
our spiritual poise and faith, it matters not what 
condition confronts us, to keep love undimmed and 
fervent through all the tests of ingratitude and neg- 
lect. Success is an unshakable conviction that 
Truth and Right always triumph and that he who 
loves them is rewarded; first, through his convic- 
tion of their Reality; second, through the adjust- 
ment of his circumstances and the supply of his 
needs. 

Question, — ^What is spiritual education? 

Answer, — Spiritual education frees individual 
powers. There are no impossible tasks to Mind. 
Truth deals with ideas only, never with external 
objects. To have correct ideas is to release the 
hidden potencies of man's being. Every one is an 
artist and outpictures his concepts of life. An un- 
trained artist makes crude and sometimes hideous 
pictures if thought has been allowed to roam 
viciously. The trained artist intelligently governs 
the character of his pictures because thought has a 
model, the spiritual Reality. Spiritual education 
trains one to perceive the beauty of the spiritual 
world and to report it directly and clearly. Pro- 
ficiency in this work grows or develops as it does in 
any other line of work by practice and definite en- 



2i6 TRUTH AND LIFE 

deavor. Religious training is not less arduous than 
the training in music, art, business, or any of the 
work through which man interprets life. Spiritual 
training is conservation, because it takes thought 
which has been diverted into unproductive channels 
and makes all thought constructive. 

Question. — What is hypnotism? 

Answer, — Hypnotism is one human mind domi- 
nating another human mind. It is not possible to 
hypnotize anyone who is centered in Truth, for his 
convictions are established. A hypnotic subject is 
an unestablished mind. Suggestion is the least in- 
jurious and most common form of control. Spirit- 
ual healing dehypnotizes because it destroys 
"human** thought altogether ; it is receptivity to God 
thought through humble prayer. Hypnotism is 
mental chaos, and it is as disastrous to the hypno- 
tizer as to the hypnotized. Strong willed people 
need always to be careful because of their influence 
over those who have not found themselves and are 
therefore uncentered. Much real hypnotism is un- 
conscious. Thinking wrongly in a strong manner 
often dominates a situation. To have an intense 
human sympathy for the ills or sorrows of another 
is also hypnotic, in a sense that it makes these con- 
ditions real to the one who is suflFering and thereby 
renders it impossible to free him. To be under the 
influence of another human mind is the deepest 
sense-sleep. 

Question. — How can there be a human mind, if 
there is only One Mind? 

Answer. — Unfortunately in metaphysics we use 
language which we are accustomed to use, in order 



FUNDAMENTALS 217 

to enable new students to comprehend us. It would 
be far more appropriate to say human beliefs, than 
human mind. The term human mind is used to 
designate the beliefs the senses of immaturity report 
with regard to life. Some of those beliefs are ab- 
solutely erroneous. Other beliefs held are truths 
dimly or imperfectly perceived. Spiritual illumina- 
tion is the only positive conviction of Truth, for 
then we are out of human beliefs and in Mind. 

Question, — Can the malicious thought of another 
or others injure us? 

Answer, — To be centered in God is to be immune 
from any ill, physical, mental or psychical. To 
know God is to put on an impenetrable armor. 
Nothing mortal has power; we give conditions 
power by our belief that an evil thought or act can 
injure us. If another does not feel or think truly 
about you, go deeper than the mortal of him, and 
trust God which is the inmost Mind of him; he 
then cannot think otherwise toward you than you do 
toward him. The Master invested all power in 
God, and gave no power whatsoever to evil. He 
taught that to know Truth, is absolute protection. 

Question, — Is there more than one will? 

Answer, — There is but one Will, because there is 
but one Mind. This Will is always willing the wel- 
fare of every living thing and no interests can con- 
flict. The function of will must never be directed 
to another with intent or influence, even for good. 
Our obligation to another is to awaken him to his 
own power. Sometimes this may even permit our 
loved ones to suflFer when we apparently could, in a 
human way, shield them. To govern another is al- 



2i8 TRUTH AND LIFE 

ways selfishness, and selfishness is ignorance. No 
one can receive his good until he is selfless, nor 
can one awaken others until one has in some measure 
at least, attained selflessness. 

Question. — Are the experiences and appearances 
apparent to the senses delusions? 

Answer, — No, we are seeing the expression of 
man's thought in the sense that we see the errors 
and truths of a problem on the blackboard. We 
continuously see the sub-conscious impressions of 
man, and always will so see them ; but with discern- 
ment of spiritual Reality, our sub-conscious transla- 
tions will be more truly representative. Thus we 
gain freedom. 

Question. — ^What is freedom? 

Answer. — Freedom is a true translation of spirit- 
ual Reality. Each man stands as something new 
and unrevealed in the Cosmos. In the discernment 
and revelation of the distinct idea which is the in- 
dividuality comes "the joy no man taketh from 
you." In the last analysis this is the one thing 
needful ; for did we possess everything in the world 
and were ignorant of our own being and its powers, 
we would have nothing. "For what is a man ad- 
vantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose him- 
self, or be cast away?'' the Way-Shower asked. 
Self possession is God possession ; this is joy, peace, 
substance and success. The loss of the conscious- 
ness of God is defined in the Bible as hell. It is 
confusion, indirection, unhappiness and lack of pur- 
pose. We are bound in the meshes of our false 
thinking only. Heaven is the conviction of the 
meaning and purpose that the Creator has in us, 



FUNDAMENTALS 219 

and the sustained faith to work it out according to 
the divine plan. 

Question. — Is there a short way to freedom? 

Answer, — ^Yes, Christianity is the short, easy, 
direct, narrow Way to Freedom — short, because it 
eliminates all mortal or materialistic thinking. It 
establishes God as the only Thinker. Christianity 
brings one under the direct thought and action of 
God. Mortal beliefs have no creator, they are, as a 
great metaphysician has said, "a dream without a 
dreamer." It is not man who thinks falsely; man 
thinks in terms of the Mind in which he has his 
being. In mortal thought we fall short of real 
thought, which is sin. This delay is eliminated by 
the principles of Christianity. Christianity is the 
easy way, because when we think in terms of Mind 
there are no inharmonious come-backs. The trans- 
gressor gets tangled up and makes the way hard, but 
truth is always freeing. Truth relieves one entirely 
of responsibilities either for one's self or others. 
Truth places all responsibility upon God ; man's only 
responsibility is to know Truth. Christianity is 
direct, because it always thinks in spiritual princi- 
ples. Spiritual principle is the manner in which 
God thinks His Universe. Christianity is the nar- 
row way for there is no way to think except the way 
thinks actually are. Consequently the Truth frees 
us, for all that ever binds us is the loose thinking 
which is the "broad way that leadeth to destruction." 

Question, — Give a definite method of silent 
prayer. 

Answer. — One must always work with the idea in 
consciousness of a model spiritual world. One 



220 TRUTH AND LIFE 

must never leave his consciousness a blank, which 
leaves his mental home open for all the vicious and 
unprofitable thinking of the sub-conscious race be- 
liefs to sweep in upon him. Prayer is the elimina- 
tion of this, by the substitution of true thought. 
Thus the silence becomes a vital working for right 
ideas, and the elimination of untrue thought. Work 
definitely to find the God Idea of all things, con- 
stantly bringing back the wandering from this basis, 
until you can think in no other terms than the spirit- 
ual. God is the One Thinker ; we think only as He 
thinks, through our consciousness. Man is the 
means through which God thinks, wills and loves. 
God has greater purposes for us than we can 
possibly have for ourselves ; we must become quiet 
and permit His Will done for us. Personal desires 
which are limited and selfish interfere with the per- 
fect process of the unf oldment of God's Ideas in our 
consciousness. Every bondsman has within himself 
the power to cancel his captivity. One half hour a 
day, fifteen minutes in the morning, fifteen minutes 
in the evening, will transfigure any life, if during the 
rest of the time thought so established is held true. 
The race consciousness is filled with impotent pray- 
ing, servile beseechings for materialistic gifts. AH 
of this kind of profitless work must be eliminated 
through true prayer. All that we need physically, 
mentally and spiritually is included in true thinking, 
and man works out those needs from Spirit as he 
permits God to satisfy Himself in his conscious- 
ness. Never make a piivate prayer ; think in terms 
of universal man; private prayer is congestion. 
All men are free, all men are perfect, all men have 



FUNDAMENTALS 221 

now "all that the Father hath/' all men are under the 
direct action of God. It is this large free thought 
of the spiritual man and the spiritual universe that 
adjusts our individual needs and releases our par- 
ticular faculties into consciousness. What we see 
for the race is automatically, easily and without ten- 
sion or disturbance of any kind, reproduced in the 
individual life. Prayer assumes the goodness of 
God and His willingness to give, and thinking and 
acting from this basis, through the psychological 
"law of substitution," or in the language of the 
Scriptures, "repentance," changes the consciousness 
from mortal to spiritual thought. Consciousness is 
changed idea by idea, as we correct them from the 
human belief about things, God and man, to spiritual 
revelation of the God Idea of everything. Every- 
thing that really exists is a God Idea. As we learn 
note by note in music and work to strike them cor- 
rectly and thus gain true tone, in prayer we work 
to get the true thought. It is the nature of tone to 
become audible, it is the nature of thought to become 
visible. 

Question, — ^What is the psychological "law of 
substitution," or the Christian "law of repent- 
ance"? 

Answer, — We find ourselves governed by the sub- 
conscious race beliefs. These beliefs control us 
until we learn to control them. Control of wrong 
thought is obtained by substitution of true thought 
only. We must think because man is in Mind, the 
activity of Mind, and man's only work is to learn 
Truth which is correct thought. One cannot think 
correctly and incorrectly at the same time. So as 



222 TRUTH AND LIFE 

we leave the untrue by refusing to entertain it the 
true Idea appears in consciousness. With the dis- 
appearance of the untrue beHef the consequences 
which were its inevitable result disappear also. No 
condition can remain without the thought that 
sustains it. External conditions of disease of body, 
chaos of circumstance, and discord reveal the 
thoughts that miscreate them. The law of substi- 
tution or repentance is the substitution of correct 
thought for incorrect belief. 

Question, — Are the experiences and appearances 
apparent to the senses Realities? 

Answer. — No, our physical senses report the sub- 
conscious impressions in the race thought. Every 
one publishes all that he thinks, nothing is concealed. 
Thus we see not the real of each other through the 
senses but what each one thinks about himself. 
When with Paul we refuse to see man after the 
flesh, but after the Christ we will see the Real. We 
do not have to correct anything outside of our own 
consciousnjess. Refuse to stamp upon the con- 
sciousness of the sinner as real the mistakes the 
mortal makes, and you will be the forgiver of the 
sins of the race. Thus alone do we work in spirit- 
ual principles and gain the power resident in the 
Idea that man embodies. Because Jesus perceived 
the spiritual reality of man, John said of him : "Be- 
hold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of 
the world.*' To criticize, find fault and condemn 
others reveals that the "beam'' has not been taken 
from our own eyes. We must discriminate between 
the sin and the man that God sustains in His 
thought. Never condemn any one even if you see 



FUNDAMENTALS 223 

one *'play such fantastic tricks before high heaven 
as makes the angels weep." Be more than an angel, 
be the Christ, and take the sin away, by seeing the 
perfect of him. 

Question. — What is the difference between the 
natural body and the spiritual body? 

Answer. — The natural body is the way body is 
perceived by the senses, the belief about the body 
in the race consciousness. It is the expression of 
the sub-conscious beliefs of the race, for the body re- 
flects all the race thought. It appears at birth, un- 
folds to maturity, and by a process of deterioration 
disappears through death. It is the manner in 
which we perceive body and while we so believe, that 
will be life's processes for us. Christianity comes 
with fan in hand to destroy this belief of body. It 
looks past mortal beliefs and discerns "the Lord's 
body," that is the real body, man's perfect identity in 
God. Man is never born into a material body nor 
does he die and leave one. Man is always in a 
perfect body in God's consciousness. He never has 
been, is not now, and never can be in a material 
body. We are merely reading his thoughts about 
himself, and as he changes his thought we read that 
too in a better body and better conditions. Man will 
continue this change of thought constantly as he 
perceives more clearly the perfect body until the 
real indestructible and spiritual body appears in his 
consciousness. 

Question. — ^What is a spiritual treatment? 

Answer. — A treatment is a scientific prayer, 
which is the silent recognition of man as God sees 
him. Spiritually man is always perfect and when 



224 TRUTH AND LIFE 

he is lifted up into this concept of himself, he re- 
stores his thought to normal action which is health. 
A patient is only healed as his thought is healed. 
"The flesh profiteth nothing; it is the Spirit that 
quickeneth/' 

Question. — Give some specific method for the 
treatment of organic disease, such as blindness, 
deafness, lameness. 

Answer. — Never treat a physical body nor any 
organ of the physical body. True treatment is the 
recognition of the faculty of which the organ is the 
symbol or instrument. Sight is not in the eye but in 
the consciousness. If sight were in the eye then the 
dead body would see, but no sight is in the eye of the 
dead body no matter how perfect the organ be. 
Hearing is not in the ear nor the power of locomo- 
tion in the legs. Yet we cannot see without the eye, 
hear without the ear, nor walk without the legs. If 
we have a perfect belief in sight we have perfect 
eyes, if we have a perfect concept of hearing we 
have perfect ears, if we believe that motion is a 
faculty of spiritual man the limbs are adequate to 
their work. All of man's faculties are mental and 
not physical faculties. Then it is the belief which 
must be rectified, corrected by perception of the 
faculty as held in God's consciousness. Our 
faculties are all in Divine Mind and not in any iso- 
lated fragment which human belief may designate as 
"my mind." If we had private minds which held 
our faculties they might get out of repair or be lost. 
The truth is that we have no private mind. There 
is but one mind, and man is in that Mind, and every 
faculty and power of man is in that Mind, and the 



FUNDAMENTALS 225 

powers and faculties of Divine Mind can never be 
impaired or lost. Treatment then consists in 
knowing the perfection of the faculties of sight, 
hearing and movement or whatever it be that we 
see imperfectly. As the belief is corrected the 
organ is restored. Consciousness of any faculty or 
power holds within itself the manifestation and per- 
fection of the organ. The man born blind did not 
ask Jesus to treat his eyes. He asked that he might 
receive his sight. Sight is a faculty of Mind, it in- 
heres in the principle of man, and to receive it we 
must receive God's consciousness of sight. God 
sees by means of man's eyes. Man is a conscious- 
ness of the faculties and powers of God, and he is 
free as he knows the Truth of those powers and 
faculties. 

Question, — Does the one who gives a treatment 
actually heal the other? 

Answer, — In the sense that the practitioner aids 
another to see himself correctly as a perfect being 
in God's Mind he does heal, for he aids the other 
to come out from under the shadow of sin into 
God's perfect concept of man as he eternally is in 
the Kingdom of Heaven. We may say the prac- 
titioner merely removes the shutter of the camera 
and permits the true impression from God to come 
to the patient. The relation of practitioner and pa- 
tient is given by Jesus in Matt. 18 iiq. "Again I say 
unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as 
touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be 
done for them of my Father which is in Heaven." 
The agreement of both practitioner and patient is 
that the human error be rectified and that the Truth 



226 TRUTH AND LIFE 

be revealed to consciousness. Both practitioner 
and patient come from under the shadow of mortal 
belief into the Light. 

Question. — Is man finite and God infinite? 

Answer. — Man is whatever God is. If there is 
nothing "finite'* in God there is nothing finite in 
man. If God is infinite where or how can there be 
anything that is finite? Man is an infinite idea in 
an Infinite Mind, capable of understanding all the 
ideas of Infinity; of exchanging them and demon- 
strating their truth. Man never began to be any 
more than God did, he will never cease to be any 
more than God will. God is; man is the natural 
consequence of God. 

Question. — ^What is the meaning of the words 
"All things are possible to him that believeth" ? 

Answer. — ^We are but faintly perceiving the 
power resident in the spiritual world which is sub- 
ject to man as he comprehends spiritual principles. 
It means that man has the resident power through 
faith in God to work out the perfect conditions of 
the Kingdom of God into his body, and circum- 
stances. All that man can possibly desire now, or 
at any future time is already in the Kingdom wait- 
ing his appropriation. Man takes his inheritance 
through prayer and work. 

Question. — ^Why must man seek first the King- 
dom? 

Answer. — Man is a citizen of the Kingdom of 
God, and can work out the things that pertain to his 
welfare only from this vantage position. The 
Kingdom position gives unrestricted freedom to 
work in spiritual principles unhampered and un- 



FUNDAMENTALS 227 

limited by material restrictions. The Kingdom is 
composed of the perfect Ideas of God, and here we 
see the real without being deflected by the distortions 
of mortal miscreations. The things we want, life, 
love, supply, efficiency are to be found in the King- 
dom and nowhere else. Heaven and earth are not 
locations, they are states of consciousness. Heaven 
is a condition of intelligent thought which gives free 
expression to all the potencies of man. Earth is a 
condition of restriction because limited to what the 
race has believed life to be. These sub-conscious 
beliefs are a series of untrue picture images, which 
we continue to reproduce so long as we believe them 
real. From the Kingdom outlook we perceive their 
falsity and correct them. 

Question. — How far can we aid others? 

Answer, — No man can place a limit on what love 
can accomplish. "He that endureth, to the end shall 
be saved." If we stay with any one to the end we 
must see him saved as we are saved ourselves by 
remaining to the end. The only end that is pos- 
sible in a universe held in the consciousness of a 
perfect God, is the demonstration of Truth. There 
cannot possibly be any other end, for Truth is the 
basis of every man, of every woman and of every- 
thing in the whole universe. It is only unselfish 
love which uncovers the Reality of others. Un- 
selfish love constantly confers freedom on others, 
confident that all must find themselves where man 
has always been, in the Kingdom of God's con- 
sciousness. We worry over the possible loss of a 
loved one, but no man can be lost, he is upheld 
by the eternal consciousness of God. We restore 



228 TRUTH AND LIFE 

those whom we truly love by persistently seeing 
them in their spiritual Reality. This is the law of 
substitution, substituting the spiritual for the mortal 
concept of man. 

Question. — How may we find God, ourselves and 
our own work ? 

Answer, — "Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye 
shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. 
For every one that asketh receiveth, every one that 
seeketh findeth, every one that knocketh hath it 
opened unto him." After you have asked, sought 
and knocked, believe that you have received. This 
must not be in the suggestive belief that something 
new is coming into existence because you have asked 
for it. All things were given you in the beginning- 
less beginning; prayer but makes you conscious of 
what is yours and therefore enables you to receive 
it. While waiting for it to be manifest, cheerfully 
do whatever comes your way to do. Thus you let 
"patience have her perfect work, that ye may be 
perfect and entire, wanting nothing.'' We waste 
time and energy rushing around and fail to perceive 
the good that is always seeking us. Always re- 
member that waiting is good hunting, for sooner or 
later everything passes your way. It is amazing 
how many times we are told in the Bible to ^^wait on 
the Lord." This waiting is not a passive but an ex- 
pectant state of consciousness that perceives every 
good and receives what otherwise would pass un- 
observed. 

Question. — What is religion? 

Answer. — Religion is knowledge of God; it is to 
be in that state of consciousness which, as the word 



FUNDAMENTALS 229 

implies, rebinds us to Him. As religion relates us 
to God it also relates us to our fellow man through 
the perception of our eternal relationship to him. 
It makes thought deep and true, and compels the 
elimination of shallow and unproductive thinking. 
Hegel in his "Introduction to Logic," tells us that, 
"we secretly perceive toward an object before 
thinking it.'* Religion demands that we clearly per- 
ceive Truth and then think in its principles. 
Through love we can aid others and give our ex- 
perience to them, but each is a unique instrument 
through which the Spirit works. Religion is the 
establishment of character and the accomplishment 
of our work. True work is dependent on true 
character, for "Never a perfect work from an im- 
perfect artist.'' Working in the Light, aiding others 
to perceive the Light we break the hypnotic sleep 
of sense. 

Question. — What is the hypnotic sleep of sense ? 

Answer,— The belief that life, power or substance 
inheres in anything but the Consciousness of God. 
It is the belief that we see with the eyes of sense in- 
stead of with the eyes of Soul. It is the belief that 
things exist as separate fragments and have life or 
intelligence apart from the mind of God, that they 
appear and disappear, can be created or destroyed. 
It is upon this false concept that all the errors of 
human belief and the errors apparent to the senses 
are based. 

Question,— Wh3,t is faith? 

Answer. — Faith is the Consciousness of God 
governing every faculty of our being. It is to have 
the mind which was also in Christ Jesus. It is a 



230 TRUTH AND LIFE 

conviction of the spirituality of the whole universe. 
It is an insight into the meaning of the Creator in 
man. It is to be alive with the life of God. It is 
to have a sustained consciousness of the Presence 
and Power of God. Faith expects all good, it 
''knows out" all evil. It is not enough to have faith 
in God; we must have the vital. activity which is the 
faith of God. Faith is the adventurous and creative 
power of man. Faith is the ability to advance fear- 
lessly into the dynamic possibilities of the spiritual 
realm, believing in them in such a manner as to 
make them come into visibility. When the light of 
faith is ours then the radiance of the spiritual world 
glorifies the whole mien and the advancing years 
bring increase of intellectual and spiritual power and 
not diminution of vigor. 

Question, — How may we attain the Kingdom ? 

Answer, — Watch, pray, study and work. Never 
cease any of these essentials. One is never too old 
to find truth and demonstrate it, one is never too 
young to be trained in spiritual principles. Do not 
fear inability for you have the same ability all the 
great have had, access to the Mind of God. This 
mind is ours to discover and to make real to our con- 
sciousness. It is ours to demonstrate and enjoy. 
What others have done you can do also if you work 
as they have worked. Do not regret the past, lack 
of education or loss of time. Eternity is before 
you and you may face it in gladness. Build you a 
body on the rock of principles. Build you a home 
and work on the greatness of God. Acquire the 
habit of constructive Kingdom work and you cannot 



.^FUNDAMENTALS 231 

fail to solve your difficulties, and overcome all ob- 
structions. 

Question. — How shall we regard or think of the 
so-called dead ? 

Answer, — Every one is immortal because he is in 
God's consciousness. No one is dead in the sense 
that he is not still a living, thinking individual. Our 
communication with our loved ones in the flesh is 
always through God, that is, we never really com- 
municate with another save as an appeal to the one 
Mind in them and it responds to us through them. 
This is the method that gives us peace when com- 
municating with the loved ones out of sense sight. 
When perfect communication through Spirit is 
established material walls will be dissolved, and we 
shall see each other face to face. Separation is en- 
tirely in sense beliefs. 

Question. — Can we aid the loved ones who have 
passed from sight? 

Answer. — Yes; in the same manner that we aid 
those whom we see, by true thinking. Good will is 
a vitalizing and energizing force. It is the atmos- 
phere of the Kingdom. Those who are beyond our 
range of vision are confronted with the same task 
which confronts us, overcoming the belief of ma- 
teriality and separation. When we come to the 
mount of illumination. Cosmic Consciousness, we 
know that there are no dead. 



CHAPTER XII 

COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS. 

Verily, I say unto you, that there be some of you stand- 
ing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the son 
of man coming in his kingdom. — Matt. 16:28. 

Cosmic Consciousness is the climax of that mystic 
event in which the holden eye being freed, the spirit- 
ual world is unveiled, and we are, as Dante says, 
"transhumanized into a God." The evolution of 
this consciousness in the race has been so ably and 
so lucidly treated by Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke in 
his book, "Cosmic Consciousness," that we can do 
no better service to our readers than give here a 
concise summary of it. 

"Truth and Life" has been designed as a text- 
book for busy and practical people who ask for a 
religion that will satisfy their reason. The spirit- 
uality that is not rational leads to fanaticism. The 
resume here presented will enable the reader to 
understand scientifically the process of unfoldment 
by which humanity is to attain the Kingdom Con- 
sciousness, and through this understanding be helped 
to enter it himself. 

An Outline of the Evolution of Consciousness. — • 
In simple consciousness a sentient being knows, but 
does not know that he knows. In the animal, con- 
sciousness always remains subjective; everything 
that its consciousness embraces appears in and for 

232 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 233 

itself, and can never become the object of meditation. 
In man self consciousness is his ability to put him- 
self as it were outside of himself, and to find the 
essential meaning and quality of the things in the 
world about him. Self consciousness is the ability 
to formulate ideas and express them by means of 
language and art. Man can conceive of himself as a 
distinct entity, apart from the rest of the universe; he 
has the ability to analyze himself, his moods and 
motives, and to gain conscious and intelligent di- 
rection of his own forces. We are conscious, as it 
were, of two selves in the self conscious or human 
mind, the objective or intellectual, the "eating, drink- 
ing, counting man"; relating us to the world of 
things and enabling us to function on the physical 
plane. But there is the functioning of the inner 
mind which expresses faith, courage, character, 
sympathy, affection, and the power to make de- 
cisions. It is this latter that determines what sort 
of a place this world in which we live shall appear 
to be to each of us. For it is not our eyes, ears, or 
even our intellects, which report to us the world we 
live in; it is our spiritual nature that determines 
finally the significance of what exists about us. 

Cosmic consciousness is a sense of life as high 
above and distinct from self consciousness, as the 
latter is above and distinct from simple conscious- 
ness. Cosmic consciousness destroys sin, corrects 
errors, eliminates materiality and separation. We 
understand life and its powers quite beyond the 
scope of self consciousness when it is upon us, 
Cosmic consciousness comprehends without effort, 
overcomes time and space, instantly attains ends and 



234 TRUTH AND LIFE 

completes work by a method which we designate 
"superhuman" power. 

The Process in One Life, — Let us as briefly as 
possible trace the evolution of consciousness, through 
the unfoldment of one individual life. Each indi- 
vidual in his own life repeats the evolution of the 
race. We may, therefore, trace concretely the 
whole racial unfoldment through one's own experi- 
ence. The prenatal child passes through the whole 
evolutionary process, and after birth the develop- 
ment of consciousness, which is education — the lead- 
ing out of self — is that of the race, eons fore- 
shortened within the span of one human life. 

The education of the child begins with his first 
sensations. He becomes aware gradually of the 
world about him and unfolds through the following 
four distinct states of consciousness. First by the 
acquisition, and more or less perfect registration of 
sense impressions, called percepts. A sound merely 
heard, an object merely seen form percepts. When 
the sound is distinguished from other sounds or the 
object known from other objects the percept be- 
comes a recept; it is then something registered in 
consciousness. This first consciousness is known 
as the receptual. 

The child collects sense impressions by means of 
percepts and classifies them by recepts until the 
highest point of purely receptual intelligence has 
been reached. The accumulation of percepts and 
recepts continues until no more are possible, without 
larger expression. At this stage a fusion takes 
place, and relationships established between percepts 
and recepts, and out of this relationship are formed 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 235 

concepts. The relation of a concept to a recept is 
somewhat similar to the relation of' algebra to 
arithmetic. A recept is the composite image of 
hundreds, perhaps thousands of percepts ; it is itself 
an image abstracted from many images ; but a con- 
cept is that composite image named and registered 
in the archives of memory or the sub-conscious mind 
to be drawn upon and used whenever required. 
The brain of a thinking man does not exceed in size 
the brain of a non-thinking man, for the thinker 
does no more work than the savage. The savage 
works by the slow arithmetical process of recepts, 
the thinker short circuits by means of algebraic 
concepts. 

The substitution of concepts for recepts increases 
the efficiency of thought as machinery increases the 
capacity for work, or as algebra increases the power 
for mathematical calculation. From concepts lan- 
guage is formed, and then simple consciousness is 
replaced by selfconsciousness. In developing this 
higher consciousness neither the perceptual nor the 
receptual functioning ceases its action for we could 
not live without these any more than could the 
animal. Perfect concepts can be formed only on 
perfect percepts and recepts. Thought functions on 
the complex interchangeability or percepts, recepts 
and concepts. 

As the state of selfconsciousness matures, a new 
state is born out of it for there is a Hmit to the ac- 
cumulation of concepts. The manner of the birth 
of cosmic or spiritual consciousness is very similar 
to that of the birth of selfconsciousness. Con- 
sciousness is crowded with concepts constantly be- 



236 TRUTH AND LIFE 

coming larger, more numerous and more complex ; a 
fusion or what may be called chemical union takes 
place, and the result is an intuition, the establishment 
of the intuitional mind, or cosmic consciousness. 

From the beginning to the end, the ego builds the 
body by thought. The mind builds the body out of 
its own material and it reveals the state of con- 
sciousness, as the orchestra reveals the tones struck 
by the players. With the maturity of the con- 
ceptual mind must come the re-birth out of this state 
of consciousness taught by Jesus. We are each, as 
Victor Hugo says, the "tadpole of an archangel." 
To overcrowd the conceptual mind with the accumu- 
lation of facts does not bring it to maturity. Edu- 
cation is the ability to think and act with definite 
originality. True concepts are the result of correct 
percepts and recepts; intuition is the result of per- 
fect concepts ; but these must be formed in the mind 
and not be introduced from without. The fourth 
and last state of consciousness known to us is the 
relationship of concepts — Cosmic Consciousness. 

Cosmic Consciousness, — If we are to endure to 
the end that we may be saved every step of the 
way must be intelligently completed. If we injure 
the tadpole it cannot reach perfect maturity. Fail- 
ing to register perfect percepts and recepts results in 
mental deficiency or arrested development, and for- 
mation of correct concepts becomes then impossible. 
If we vitiate the formation of perfect concepts by 
incorrect and indecisive thinking, by sin and self in- 
dulgence, the formation of the intuitional mind is not 
the outcome. Thus we fall by the wayside and do 
not reach the destination — Cosmic Consciousness. 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 237 

The intuitional mind is the concordant relation- 
ship of concepts enabling it to eliminate time and 
effort in conceptual functioning in a manner com- 
parable to that which obtains when concepts are 
formed from receptual functioning. It is the direct 
and instantaneous fusion of concepts, plus the 
ability to make connection and receive intelligence 
and power from the spiritual world. Cosmic con- 
sciousness is not an expansion of self consciousness ; 
it is as distinct from it as that is from simple con- 
sciousness. Self consciousness is the entrance of a 
higher consciousness than that of simple conscious- 
ness; its procedure in thought and act is distinctly 
different. In like manner those who possess the 
cosmic consciousness are not limited by the method 
of thinking and working which inheres in self con- 
sciousness. Its process is not the ratiocination of 
self consciousness. It is an instantaneous knowing, 
a spiritual quickening, an immediateness of appre- 
hension. 

The biblical allegory, that the first man was inno- 
cent and happy until he ate of the tree of knowledge 
of good and evil, is a penetrating insight into the 
facts of man's evolution. Primitive man was a 
creature with simple consciousness only. He was 
incapable of sin or shame in the human sense. He 
knew nothing of work or progress. From this 
primal state of innocence he awoke to a conscious- 
ness of himself; he knew he was naked, he felt 
shame, he felt sin, a fall from his simple and natural 
estate. Sin was the accursed thing that bruised 
man's heel, halting his progress, hindering him and 
making his way painful. The solution of every 



238 TRUTH AND LIFE 

problem is in the problem; the right way is never 
absent, it matters not how astray we feel ourselves 
to be. Thus the insight of the Deliverer came with 
the sin, that eventually sin should be crushed by man 
himself — by the rising up within him of a Saviour, 
or in Paul's language, the Christ — Cosmic Con- 
sciousness. 

A Bird's Eye View,— The method by which we 
evolve consciousness is uniform from beginning to 
end. A recept is made up of many percepts, a con- 
cept of many percepts and recepts, an intuition of 
many concepts, percepts and recepts. This conscious- 
ness brings us to the threshold of the Kingdom with 
ability to receive direct revelation from the spiritual 
world. "As simple consciousness came into ex- 
istence where before i^as merd vitality; as self 
consciousness leaped wi^e-winged from simple con- 
sciousness and soared forth over land and sea; 
so shall the race of man which has been thus estab- 
lished, continue its beginningless and endless ascent, 
making other steps and thus attaining a yet higher 
life than any heretofore experienced or even con- 
ceived." 

One can not perceive this great ascent of man 
without feeling the Infinite Intelligence and Love, 
which calmly awaits man's growth up into Cosmic 
Consciousness through immense cycles. The uni- 
versal scheme is woven in one piece. It is per- 
meated by a Consciousness throughout in which the 
perfect of everything exists in eternality. Evolu- 
tion is the inherent ability within man's own being 
to become aware of the vast, multiform and uniform 
universe. That which especially concerns us is the 



ii 



I 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 239 

nature of the universe, and the unfoldment of man 
from simple to self, and from self to Christ, spirit- 
ually conscious man. 

The Truth of Evolution. — The Truth of man is 
not evolution. Man like his God, is the same yes- 
terday, today and forever. Evolution is merely the 
process through which man becomes aware of him- 
self and the universe in which his life is em- 
bosomed. At first man's insight into himself and 
belief about himself is "of the earth, earthy,'' and as 
he appears to himself, so creation appears to him 
also — material, inert, unresponsive, unyielding. As 
man unfolds to his own consciousness, creation un- 
folds before him also. The primitive man cannot 
perceive the tints of the sky, the infinite lure of the 
ocean, the grandeur of mountain and plain, that the 
trained artist perceives. The human perceives but 
darkly, be his training what it may, the infinite ir- 
radiation of color, the perfection of form, the vi- 
brant and rhythmic beauty of creation, which those 
perceive who have spiritual illumination. 

Creation is always perfect, it undergoes no evolu- 
tion. Man and his spiritual body are always per- 
fect, these undergo no evolution. Evolution is but 
the succession of appearances which we see in the 
ascent of life from sense to Soul. These appear- 
ances are the crude translatfons which result from 
an imperfect perception of the model. Sense man 
perceives the pictures of his own crude thought and 
thinks these are real. Creation can only really be 
seen from the summit of the mountain of Cosmic 
Consciousness. 

The Perfect Real a Revelation, — How comes it 



^40 TRUTH AND LIFE 

that we thus speak with authority of that which is 
hidden from the 'Vise and prudent" of this world? 
It is because we have become babes in Christ, be- 
cause we have seen and known these things through 
experience. Those who '^discern the Lord's body," 
know that the ideal body is never absent, but is 
always present breaking over and into man's con- 
sciousness through successive stages. The cave 
man was a crude conception, but the possibility of 
the Apollo Belvedere was always present in him. 
Yet the body of a living Apollo Belvedere would be 
crude, heavy, material, if it were compared with 
the luminous body of spiritual man that is awaiting 
recognition in every child of the eternal Father. 

The stage from simple to self consciousness rep- 
resents a period of many hundreds of thousands 
years of evolution. Man has possessed self con- 
sciousness for perhaps an equal period ; and for the 
last twenty-five hundred years there have been 
breaking through the self-conscious mind those 
higher glimpses which place those in whom they ap- 
pear in a class by themselves. Thus has been in- 
augurated another kingdom of consciousness, which 
is separated from the human consciousness as 
widely as the human is from the simple conscious- 
ness which preceded it. Jesus claimed that the least 
in the Kingdom was greater than that living dynamo 
of human righteousness, John the Baptist. 

Cosmic Consciousness comes upon one, and the 
immortal prayer of Jesus is an invitation and invoca- 
tion that it come. "Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will 
be done," is the waiting and watching for its ar- 
rival. The primal characteristic of Cosmic Con- 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 241 

sciousness is, as its name implies, a consciousness of 
the Cosmos, that is, of the life, nature and beauty of 
the universe. Many elements belong to the cosmic 
sense other than the central fact. It is the per- 
ception of things before invisible, an intellectual 
quickening and a spiritual exaltation which make 
one conscious of being a new creature in a new 
world, with ability to think, live and work in a 
joyous sense of spontaneity and power unknown 
before its advent. With these comes what may be 
called a sense of immortality, a conviction of eternal 
life, not the conviction that we shall have it, but 
that we already possess it. 

Lights in the World, — Only personal experience 
of Cosmic Consciousness enables us to know what 
it really is. But as Cosmic Consciousness is the 
event towards which the whole creation moves, a 
brief outline of some of the great lives and achieve- 
ments of some of those who were illumined by the 
mystic descent of the Holy Spirit, one of the names 
of Cosmic Consciousness employed by Jesus, will be 
of value. Dr. Bucke, in his book "Cosmic Con- 
sciousness,'' gives two tables of names, those whom 
he designates as twilight or partial cases, and those 
of full illumination. The total is a company of 
men and some few women making no large con- 
gregation. After his own illumination Dr. Bucke 
devoted his life to the compilation of a list of those 
who possessed the cosmic sense. Many of these are 
historic characters, a number great writers, some 
canonized saints, and others, people of his own time 
and acquaintance. 

The following is Dr. Buckets personal experience. 



242 TRUTH AND LIFE 

It occurred in the early spring, at the beginning of 
his thirty-sixth year. He and two friends had 
spent the evening reading Wordsworth, Shelley, 
Keats, Browning, and especially Whitman. They 
parted at midnight, when he took a long drive in a 
hansom cab. His mind, deeply under the influence 
of the ideas, images and emotions called up by the 
reading and talking of the evening, was calm and 
peaceful. He was in a state of quiet, almost passive 
enjoyment. All at once, without warning of any 
kind, he found himself wrapped around as it were 
by a flame colored cloud. For an instant he thought 
of fire, the next moment he knew that the light was 
within himself. Directly there came upon him a 
sense of exaltation, of immense joyousness ac- 
companied by an intellectual illumination quite im- 
possible for him to describe. Into his brain streamed 
one momentary lightning-flash of the Brahmic Bliss, 
leaving thenceforth an after-taste of heaven. He 
did not believe, but he saw and knew that the Cosmos 
is not dead matter, but a living Presence, that man is 
immortal, that the universe is so built and ordered 
that, without peradventure, all things work together 
for the good of each and all, that the foundation 
of the universe is love, and the final happiness of all 
is absolutely certain. He learned more within the 
few minutes that the illumination lasted than he had 
in all previous years of study. 

A New Order of Beings. — Fortunately, later Dr. 
Bucke met a friend who could aid in interpreting 
this experience. Subsequently he met several others 
who had had similar experiences. Then the idea of 
writing a book compiled of these experiences un- 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 243 

folded in his consciousness, and the book "Cosmic 
Consciousness" came into existence. (This book is 
now out of print.) After much time and labor he 
became aware that there exists a new order of 
beings, living among the human family, but scarcely 
forming -a part of ordinary humanity, whose mem- 
bers possess the cosmic sense and who thereby have 
determined the trend of advanced movements for 
many centuries. 

These people are distinguished from others by the 
fact that their spiritual eyes have been opened and 
that they have seen. The better known members of 
this group who, were they collected together, could 
be accommodated at one time in a modern drawing 
room have created all the great religions, and, speak- 
ing generally, have brought about, through religion 
and literature, our modern civilization. Not that 
they have contributed any large numerical propor- 
tion of the books which have been written, but they 
have produced the few books which have inspired 
the larger number of all the vital works that have 
been written in modern times. These men stand 
out conspicuously in the firmament of the last 
twenty-five centuries as stars of the first magnitude 
stand out in the midnight sky. 

The list consists of Moses, Gideon, Isaiah, Lao- 
Tze, Socrates, Gautama, Jesus, Paul, Plotinus, Mo- 
hammed, Shakespere, Dante, Las Casas, John Yepes, 
Behmen, Pascal, Spinoza, Mme. Guyon, Sweden- 
borg, Balzac, Carpenter, Emerson, Browning, 
Tennyson, Thoreau, and Whitman. A number of 
other writers and personal acquaintances are in- 
cluded in the list. Moses belongs to the twilight 



244 TRUTH AND LIFE 

classification. The burning bush and the impelling 
voice revealing his life work is undoubtedly of 
divine origin; but a comparison of his teachings 
with those of full illumination reveals how far short 
he falls of cosmic vision. 

The cosmic vision is variously designated by the 
different "cases." To Gautama, it was ''Nirvana"; 
to Lao-Tze, 'Tao"; to Jesus, "The Father," "The 
Spirit of Truth," and "The Way"; to Paul, 
"Christ"; to Mohammed, "Gabriel"; to Walt Whit- 
man, "My Soul" ; to Balzac, "Speciahsm." He called 
Jesus a "Specialist." At first it seems a separate 
sense, because men have identified themselves in self 
consciousness with the mortal. But with the de- 
velopment of this consciousness the dual sense is 
lost as it was in the case of Jesus; for to lose the 
sense of separation is to have the consciousness of 
God. 

A New Hope for Humanity. — The immediate 
future of the race is indescribably hopeful. Old 
conditions are rapidly passing away and constructive 
idealism is the watchword of advanced cosmic move- 
ments. The leaven of the new consciousness is 
fermenting all society, nor will it cease until all 
false and materialistic conditions are eliminated, and 
spiritual adjustment is made throughout society. 
This is possible only as we let be in us, "the mind 
which was also in Christ Jesus." This conscious- 
ness knows no great nor small, it knows nothing but 
its own absolute power and perfection, for it is "the 
fulness of all, that filleth all with all," and "whence 
it cometh all things are." 

Emerson in his essay, "Circles," tells us that the 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 245 

higher we ascend the spiral of life, the more rapid 
is the movement. The key to the miracles of the 
New Testament is the "quickening Spirit." Each 
successive generation will add super-men in com^ 
pounded returns according to the divine law of in- 
crease. The cosmic experience generally comes 
between the ages of thirty and forty when the 
conceptual mind is definitely formed. While illu- 
mination lingers with some, as it did in the case of 
Whitman, for years, in others it quickly passes, but 
a real "case'* cannot leave the life unchanged. 

It is a great mistake to think that a man who has 
had cosmic vision knows all things and is necessarily 
perfect. He has thereby merely gained the method 
of acquiring knowledge, and the ability to be led 
into all 4kt Truth. He has only established a re- 
lationship to the "Spirit of Truth," and is thus in a 
position to be educated. The dawning of self con- 
sciousness, as we read in the Allegory, is the revela- 
tion to man of his ignorance, and the necessity of 
gaining knowledge. When the Cosmic Conscious- 
ness comes upon us, it is as the revelation of our 
spiritual ignorance, a realization of the necessity for 
gaining the knowledge which will correct our spir- 
itual defects. Then the whole attitude becomes one 
of earnest aspiration to be flooded with spiritual 
light. It unfolds gradually, however, and in the 
last analysis the surest test that we possess it, is our 
ability to use it wisely in all the exigencies of life. 

A New Source of Authority. — In the dawn of 
Cosmic Consciousness all religions known and named 
today will be melted down. Human society will be 
revolutionized. Religion will be absolutely the guid- 



246 TRUTH AND LIFE 

ing impulse of the race. Religion will not be based 
upon tradition, but upon direct knowledge. It will 
not be a matter of belief or disbelief in doctrines; 
it will be a matter of personal experience. Re- 
ligion will not be a separate part of life belonging 
to certain hours, times, occasions ; but a living guide 
to thought and conduct. We will not go to teachers 
or to sacred books for our religion ; we will consult 
the inward oracle. The time cometh we -read in 
Revelations, when there will be no more churches. 
It will be unnecessary to preach a future immortal- 
ity and future glories; immortality and glory will 
be ever present. The evidence of eternal life will 
live in every heart as does sight in every eye. Doubt 
of God's existence will be as impossible as it is 
now of our own; the evidence of each will be the 
same. Religion will govern every minute of every 
day in every life. Sin will no longer exist nor will 
salvation be necessary, for all are saved as they ac- 
cept religion, or Cosmic Consciousness. Each soul 
will have direct intercourse with God, and realize 
that the entire universe with all its good and with 
all its beauty belongs to it forever. The world 
peopled by men possessing Cosmic Consciousness 
will be as far removed from the world of today as 
this is from the world that existed before the com- 
ing of self consciousness. 

The Way of Attainment. — ^What are the qualifica- 
tions for entering into Cosmic Consciousness? We 
must live in the forefront of the self-conscious mind. 
This does not mean an extraordinary but an or- 
dinary development of the intellect. The over- 
development of any faculty retards real progress; 



I 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 247 

true progress is the harmonious and co-ordinated 
growth of the whole system. The best "cases" have 
had good physiques, good heahh, but above all an 
exalted spiritual nature and sound morals. They 
have had sympathy, courage, and ability to think 
definitely and serenely. With the mature develop- 
ment of these qualities Cosmic Consciousness enters. 
Cosmic Consciousness is a sense of being bathed 
in joy, assurance, triumph, salvation. It is not that 
any particular act of salvation is affected, but it is a 
knowledge that no other salvation is needed, that 
the scheme of Creation is in itself sufficient. No 
emotion of the self-conscious mind is comparable to 
the ecstasy of cosmic illumination. It is this with 
which the poets have occupied themselves: Gau- 
tama, in his discourses, preserved in the "Suttas"; 
Lao-Tze in "Tao Teh King*' ; Jesus, in the "Para- 
bles"; Paul, in the "Epistles"; Dante, at the end 
of the "Purgatorio" and at the beginning of the 
"Paradiso"; Shakespere, in his "Sonnets"; Balzac, 
in "Seraphita"; Whitman, in "Leaves of Grass"; 
Browning in "Saul" ; and "Abt Vogler." Spiritual 
illumination includes intellectual illumination. The 
meaning and drift of the universe are presented to 
consciousness in a flash and the vision is clear. The 
experience is not one of belief; it is an inevitable 
seeing and knowing that the Cosmos, which to the 
self-conscious mind seems made up of static matter, 
is a Living Presence. One who is thus illuminated 
sees that men are not living entities in a non-living 
world, but are in fact living entities in an infinite 
ocean of life. He knows that man is as immortal 
as God. Especially he obtains such a vision of the 



248 TRUTH AND LIFE 

Whole, as dwarfs all the conceptions, imaginations 
or speculations which his self consciousness brought 
him; such a vision as compels him to realize the 
impossibility of comprehending Truth save through 
this revelation. He perceives that God and the 
Universe are so indissolubly one that no separation 
from God is possible. God is the inclusive con- 
sciousness which sustains the living and perfect form 
of all that is, in eternal life and light. 

Characteristics of Cosmic Consciousness, — The 
literature and expressions of Cosmic Consciousness 
are easily comprehensible to those who have had 
illumination, though they may seem almost like an 
unknown language to those who have not experi- 
enced it. Take for instance Whitman's "I laugh 
at what you call dissolution" ; or Emerson's "There 
is a Soul at the center of nature and over the will 
of every man, so that none of us can wrong the 
universe. It has so infused its strong enchantment 
into nature, that we prosper when we accept its 
advice, and when we struggle to wound its creatures, 
our hands are glued to our sides, or they beat our 
own breasts." It is impossible for those ideas to be 
born of self consciousness ; to think them requires a 
conscious knowledge of the sustaining quality of 
the universe by which man is upheld. 

The transforming power and healing work is the 
result of the complete illumination of Him who 
called himself both the, "Son of God," and the, 
"Son of Man." While other cases are of value be- 
cause through them we perceive the universality of 
God's revelations and purpose in man; Jesus and 
Paul have let in the greatest light on the power of 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 249 

Spiritual experiences. Paul never attained the abid- 
ing consciousness of the Master; the "thorn in the 
flesh," reached its unfailing result — death of the 
body. Yet undoubtedly Paul's is the greatest illu- 
mination except His whose Cosmic Consciousness 
reached unto the Resurrection. 

Three accounts are given of the oncoming of Cos- 
mic Consciousness or the "conversion'' of Paul. The 
last version given by Paul to King Agrippa, inter- 
ested that monarch to the extent that he remarked, 
"Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." No 
one, however, can be a Christian from an outside in- 
fluence, Christianity is interior illumination. Cosmic 
Consciousness. The following is from Acts twenty- 
sixth. "Why should it be thought a thing incredi- 
ble with you, that God should raise the dead? I 
verily thought with myself, that I ought to do 
many things contrary to the name of Jesus of 
Nazareth. 

"Which things I also did in Jerusalem ; and many 
of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received 
authority from the chief priests ; and when they were 
put to death I gave my voice unto them. And I 
punished them oft in every synagogue, and com- 
pelled them to blaspheme ; and being exceeding mad 
against them, I persecuted them even unto strange 
cities. Whereupon as I went to Damascus with 
authority and commission from the chief priests, 
at midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from 
heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining 
round about me and them which journeyed with me. 

"And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard 
a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew 



250 TRUTH AND LIFE 

tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is 
hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And I 
said. Who art thou. Lord? And he said, I am 
Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand 
upon thy feet; for I have appeared unto thee for 
this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness 
both of these things which thou hast seen, and of 
those things in the which I will appear unto thee; 
delivering thee from the people, and from the Gen- 
tiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, 
and to turn them from darkness to light, and from 
the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive 
forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them 
which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Where- 
upon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto 
the heavenly vision.'' 

Paul, thereafter, called Cosmic Consciousness 
"Christ," for only in this consciousness can be seen 
and heard the One who said, "Lo, I am with you 
always even to the end of the world." Jesus has 
not gone away, he is Here, in the Kingdom of 
Heaven, but the self-conscious mind cannot per- 
ceive him. From the time of his illumination, Paul 
"determined not to know anything among you, save 
Jesus Christ and him crucified," that is, spiritual 
man with the limitations of self consciousness 
eliminated. "For ye, brethren, were called for free- 
dom," and to bear the "fruits of the Spirit, love, 
joy, peace, patience, temperance, against such there 
is no law." There is no law of sickness, inharmony 
or death against those who have attained the free- 
dom of the Spirit, Cosmic Consciousness. 

Until we have transcended the limitations of self 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 251 

consciousness we cannot comprehend the **new 
creature'* that is symbolic of Paul's teachings. Nor 
can this new being be judged by self-conscious limi- 
tation, any more than the animal in simple con- 
sciousness merely can judge the man who has at- 
tained to self consciousness. "If any man is in 
Christ he is a new creature ; the old things are passed 
away; behold, they are become new." No expres- 
sion of the experience of Cosmic Consciousness 
could be more clear cut and perfect. This divine 
adventure makes everything different. We are 
standing on the inside as it were, and looking out, 
instead of being on the outside vainly trying to 
look in. 

In Cosmic Consciousness there is absolutely no* 
sense of sin nor of death. All fear, condemnation 
and resistance leave with the material sense. The 
conviction of the ability to bestow all good, and a 
divine compassion for those under the delusion of 
sin is characteristic of Cosmic Consciousness. "I 
bestow upon any man or woman the entrance to all 
the gifts of the universe," Walt Whitman sings 
from the sublime egoism of Cosmic Consciousness. 

Here are some of the outstanding characteristics 
of Cosmic Consciousness: 

The subjective light. 
Spiritual illumination. 
Intellectual elevation. 
Conviction of immortality. 
Conviction of perfection. 
Fearlessness under all circumstances. 



252 TRUTH AND LIFE 

The power to give and receive confidence and 

love. 
A definite and productive work. 

Unfortunately, we have not a single original speci- 
men of the writing of Jesus. The experiences of 
this most perfect case of spiritual illumination are 
related to us by others, probably after the first im- 
pression made by them had become dimmed in 
memories. However, the perfect unfoldment of 
spiritual consciousness from birth to Ascension from 
the sight of those who are in mortal limitation is 
clearly and definitely preserved in the Gospels. 

Everything points to the fact that up to a certain 
age Jesus was very much as others, and that sud- 
denly he ascended to a spiritual level far above that 
of ordinary men. Those who had previously known 
him could not comprehend his superiority. "Is not 
this the carpenter's son ?" "How knoweth this man 
letters having never learned?" 

Jesus the Perfect Example, — The earliest written, 
and probably most authentic account of the illumina- 
tion of Jesus, runs as follows: "And straightway 
coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens rent 
asunder, and the spirit of a dove descending upon 
him and a voice came out of the heavens saying: 
Thou art my beloved son, in thee I am well 
pleased.'* The expression "He saw the heavens rent 
asunder," describes well the oncoming of Cosmic 
Consciousness, which is instantaneous, as if a veil, 
with one sharp jerk had been torn from the eyes 
of the mind, permitting the sight clearness of space. 
The impulse that drove Jesus to the wilderness is 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 253 

universal. Paul retired to the desert of Arabia for 
three years, eliminating mortal beliefs and establish- 
ing immortal Truths in consciousness. Jesus was 
"led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be 
tempted of the devil/' and returned only after he 
had destroyed all sense of separation and evil. The 
soul demands solitude in order to find itself and 
adjust itself to the conditions of the new Vision. 

This retirement is prefigured in the world of na- 
ture. The lily must be placed in the ground before 
it leaves the bulb garb for its perfect bloom. The 
caterpillar weaves a cocoon and retires from its 
earth limitation until the new body, adapted to the 
air, is perfectly formed. The disciple who does not 
retire within himself, find in the Silence his God, 
discover his original self and the potencies of this 
self, and make the at-one-ment which is indispen- 
sable for resurrection and spiritual power, does not 
leave the limitation of self consciousness. Many 
have had real Cosmic Vision who have failed to ful- 
fil the requirement of solitude and overcoming sub- 
conscious limitation. 

The standard of life is distinctly different to those 
who have had the Cosmic Vision from those of self 
consciousness. Jesus destroyed every belief which 
holds the self conscious in limitation, and established 
the Truth of man in consciousness. Sensuous ease, 
to use power for selfish ends, ill gotten wealth to 
which all that is best and truest in us must be sub- 
ordinated, were rejected. Jesus quickly and defi- 
nitely decided that life in God is an outpouring of 
spiritual power for the healing of the race. Spirit- 
ual dominion is the victory we gain through the de- 



254 TRUTH AND LIFE 

struction of the race beliefs of materiality and sepa- 
ration from God. 

In waiting, watching, seeking, knocking, asking, 
expecting, the Cosmic Consciousness comes upon us. 
It does not come to the careless, but to those whose 
earnest aspiration neglects no means for spiritual 
advancement. "Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven 
be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps 
and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five 
of them were foolish and five were wise. For the 
foolish when they took their lamps, took no oil 
with them ; but the wise took oil in their vessels with 
their lamps. Now, while the bridegroom tarried, 
they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there 
was a cry : Behold the bridegroom ! Come ye forth 
and meet him. Then all the virgins arose and 
trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the 
wise: Give us of your oil; for our lamps are going 
out. But the wise answered, saying : Peradventure 
there will not be enough for us and you: Go ye 
rather to them then that sell and buy for yourselves. 
And while they went away to buy the bridegroom 
came ; and they that were ready went in with him to 
the marriage feast: and the door was shut. After- 
wards came also the other virgins, saying: Lord, 
Lord, open to us. But he answered and said : Verily, 
I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore 
for ye know not the day nor the hour." 

The Transfiguration. — The accounts given in the 
Synoptic Gospels of the transfiguration of Jesus 
can only be explained on the assumption that he was 
seen by others in a most illumined experience. Here 
is one of the accounts: "And he was transfigured 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 255 

before them; and his garments became glistening, 
exceeding white; so that no fuller on earth can 
whiten them." There is no state except that of Cos- 
mic Consciousness to which the above could apply. 

We who have experienced Cosmic Consciousness 
find no difficulty in accepting the resurrection as a 
natural consequence of a sustained state of spiritual 
illumination. The resurrection is but a disappear- 
ance from those who see with the eyes of self- 
conscious limitation. Christianity is one stupendous 
Fact. This Fact is the Resurrection. It can never 
be understood, however, until through opening the 
eyes of the mind, we see the inevitability of the 
resurrection for the whole race. 

As a historic fact no event claims more direct evi- 
dence than the Resurrection. Early Christianity 
was the result of a tomb found empty, where One 
who had been crucified and pronounced dead was 
placed, under seal and guard. No sane seeker even 
from historic accounts, but must realize that primi- 
tive Christianity could be the result of nothing save 
the appearance, after his apparent death, to his 
disciples, of the Master whom they had formerly 
known and loved. The early church was the im- 
petus given by the literal resurrection of the body of 
Jesus. This resurrection of the body is verified to a 
limited extent today by hundreds of thousands who 
have had spiritual healing. The resurrection of 
Jesus is healing perfectly demonstrated. 

The perception of the Truth of the Resurrection 
is of stupendous importance to mankind. We see 
through it that life is unfoldment which culminates 
in victory over death. It indicates that in the higher 



256 TRUTH AND LIFE 

realm man is not bodyless, but in a body which is 
not subject to the limitations which are superimposed 
by self consciousness. We understand through the 
Resurrection that the Kingdom of Heaven is a 
Reality, here and now, and that it is visible as we 
transcend mortal limitation. The spiritual world 
is not another place, but another condition; and it 
is the "good will'' of the omnipresent Father that 
we all rise into the "Resurrection and the Life." 



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